Note, you might have already promised to sign the papers. 1) many employment or separation agreements include terms where the employee agrees to cooperate with

Note, you might have already promised to sign the papers. 1) many employment or separation agreements include terms where the employee agrees to cooperate with such things after they leave. 2) your employment agreement probably assigned your IP rights to the company 3) most (all?) countries have patent application procedures that anticipate uncooperative or unavailable inventors If you refuse to cooperate, you will cost your former employer money while they work through the uncooperative inventor procedures for the country. If it was a US patent application and you did not have a prior obligation to assign your rights, you could refuse to sign, which would block the patent application. Non-US countries offer fewer rights to individual inventors (vs. the company) so it may not matter much.