Summary An inventor must have conceived an essential Stanford University element of the invention. Office of Technology Licensing

Authorship and inventorship have different criteria and are not equivalent.

Inventorship is determined by a patent attorney.

Correct inventors must be named on the patent. Who is

(and is not)

Number of Inventors by an Inventor? School

Medicine — 2,611

Engineering — 2,473

Humanities & Sciences — 889

Dean of Research — 223 1705 El Camino Real SLAC — 69 Palo Alto, CA 94306 http://otl.stanford.edu Earth Sciences — 29 Phone: 650-723-0651 Fax: 650-725-7295 http://otl.stanford.edu

3/07 Inventorship vs. Authorship Who is an Inventor? A person who contributed an extraneous idea while the invention Inventorship should not be confused with was being developed, but whose authorship on a scientific publication. The idea did not contribute directly to the courts have specifically held that Anyone can be an inventor! But not claimed invention is not considered authorship and inventorship have everyone can be named on a patent an inventor. different criteria and are not application. equivalent. It does not matter how brilliant or helpful the idea Patent law defines an inventor of is, if it is not directed to the invention as it is being a patentable invention as someone claimed in the patent application, the person is Who Determines Inventorship? who conceives of an original, not an inventor. Inventorship is determined by a patent useful and non-obvious idea. attorney or agent, who asks all parties to Faculty and Students describe their personal contributions to the Who is not an Inventor? claimed invention. Often, the attorney will Questions of inventorship can arise when faculty examine notebook pages or other tangible An inventor must have conceived (a and students work on a research project. Quite proof of inventorship. mental act) an essential element of the often, an invention is co-invented by a faculty and invention. a student because they are The correct inventors must be named on a collaborating and “conceive of patent or the patent can be invalidated. A person who actually made a physical an invention” together. Other Inventorship also confers rights to receive embodiment of the invention, however, may times, the faculty alone, or the royalties under Stanford’s patent policy so not be inventor, no matter how difficult the student alone, may be deemed there is an economic consequence to being reduction to practice was. the inventor. named/not named as an inventor.

A person who contributed only Often, the faculty has thought of general concepts labor and/or the supervision well before the student was ever involved in the of routine techniques, but invention. If the student does not contribute who did not contribute to the directly to the claimed invention, then the faculty concept of one of the could be considered the sole inventor. embodiments of the claimed invention is not considered an inventor. In other situations, conceiving general concepts does not necessarily convey inventor status. If the A person is not an inventor if he/she makes student takes a general idea and conceives the the invention work by following instructions essential elements necessary to make the or does all the experiments with direction invention work, the student could be considered from another person. the sole inventor.