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I had a lot of experience with patent rewards programs like this; both starting one (Packeteer) and helping administer one (Google). People who are named as in
by AlbertCory 3y ago
I had a lot of experience with patent rewards programs like this; both starting one (Packeteer) and helping administer one (Google).
People who are named as inventors sometimes actually contributed to it. The legal definition is "they conceived of at least one element in one claim." In practice, the claims change as the prosecution proceeds, usually removing things rather than adding, and the inventor list should shrink. It rarely does.
That's if the company is following the rules. Often the manager just puts himself or herself on as an "inventor."
As for the monetary value: occasionally a patent is worth a lot to the company, and often it's zero. Google acquired a number of IBM patents, so in that case you could put an exact value on it!
- CharlesW 3y agoI was so proud of my first patent, and also heartbroken that several other non-contributors were somehow listed as inventors.
- AlbertCory 3y agoIf you really wanted to be career-limiting, you could notify the PTO that the other "inventors" didn't really qualify. I've never heard of anyone doing this, so it would be maximum fun to watch what happens.
- sys_64738 3y agoWhy would the patent office believe you?
- AlbertCory 3y agoWe're dealing in hypotheticals here, so that's why I said it would be career-limiting fun. I can only speculate on what would happen.
- temporallobe 3y agoThey would be required to investigate that during prosecution.
- AlbertCory 3y agoWhich in practice might mean "ask the lawyers."
- treprinum 3y agoI worked for a large company where a patent had no chance of being filled if it didn't contain the manager's and director's name.
- ska 3y ago> and the inventor list should shrink. It rarely does. The thing is there is literally no downside to adding people (assuming they have an assignment clause of some sort) but missing someone can cause problems later. So it's a pretty obvious alignment to incentives.
- bane 3y agoI've dealt with this before. We had a prior employee who stole a team's work and filed it himself. When it was discovered it raised a ruckus and it turns out you really can't "drop" a person from a patent without invalidating it, but they were able to amend it to get the team added back. So now they share credit.
- AlbertCory 3y agoI recall questions on the Patent Bar study guide about "death of the inventor" and "uncooperative inventor." It's all covered, but I don't recall how.
- yaur 3y agoI’ve got my name on about a dozen US patents which translates into hundreds of worldwide patents. To me setting the minimum value at 0 seems arbitrary and almost certainly wrong. From my experience what ends up happening is that every time a patent office comes back with some sort of response I end up having to stop doing productive work to deal with it while being paid my normal hourly rate. Plus lawyers etc. my best guess is that the net value of each of those patents is closer to -100k$ than it is to 0.
- AlbertCory 3y agoInteresting. My own experience is that lawyers never bother the engineers for Office Actions. They just handle it themselves, since it's usually pretty rote. In fact, they don't even tell you when they abandon it! Taking up too much engineer time is a good way for them to lose future business.
- AlbertCory 3y ago> which translates into hundreds of worldwide patents Possibly. Every country costs a ton of money, so they don't necessarily file worldwide on all of them. There's no such thing as an "worldwide patent." At most a part of the cost by saved by Patent Cooperation Treaty filings.