Employee Invention Assignment Agreements: Securing Clean Title Across Jurisdictions

45 questions on employee invention assignment agreements, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Does a company automatically own what its employees invent?
• Do states without an invention assignment statute allow employers to claim everything?
• Do we own what an independent contractor builds for us?
• How can an employee assign an invention that does not yet exist?
• How did assignment language decide Stanford v. Roche?
• How does a title defect defeat a patent infringement suit?
• How do Washington and Minnesota's invention statutes differ from California's?
• How do you fix defective invention assignments for existing employees?
• How do you reconcile a broad invention definition with state carve-outs?
• How settled is the FilmTec rule after Stanford v. Roche?
• How should a holdover clause be drafted to be enforceable?
• How should invention assignments handle AI-assisted inventions?
• How should “Inventions” be defined in an assignment agreement?
• If a present assignment vests title automatically, why still record a separate assignment?
• If our software is a work made for hire, don't we own everything in it?
• Is continued employment enough consideration for a mid-employment invention assignment?
• Is “shall be the property of the Company” enough to transfer title?
• Is there a state where the employer owns employee inventions by default?
• Should an invention assignment address moral rights?
• What can a company do if an inventor has died or cannot be found?
• What consideration does an invention assignment need?
• What did Advanced Video Technologies v. HTC decide?
• What did FilmTec and Arachnid decide about assignment language?
• What does a complete invention assignment agreement contain?
• What does California Labor Code § 2870 require of an invention assignment?
• What goes wrong with prior-inventions schedules?
• What happens if only one of several joint inventors signs an assignment?
• What is a holdover or trailer clause?
• What is an irrevocable power of attorney in an invention assignment?
• What is a prior-inventions schedule and why does it matter?
• What is a shop right and what does it actually give an employer?
• What is the belt-and-suspenders structure for IP ownership clauses?
• What is the difference between “hereby assigns” and “agrees to assign”?
• What is the hired-to-invent doctrine and can a company rely on it?
• What makes Utah's invention assignment statute unusually demanding?
• What ongoing practices keep a company's chain of title clean?
• What other ways can a chain of title fail?
• What should a company check before extending an offer to a new hire?
• When do the two assignment phrasings actually produce different outcomes?
• Where do defective invention assignments actually cause damage?
• Which states limit what an employer can claim through an invention assignment?
• Who counts as an “employee” for work made for hire?
• Why does the word “ideas” matter in an invention assignment?
• Why do invention assignment failures usually happen?
• Why isn't owning an invention enough to prosecute a patent on it?