Can inventors who are employed by a company benefit from their own inventions?
Typically, employee-inventors who invent something in the course of their employment are bound by employment agreements that automatically assign all rights in the invention to the employer. While smart research and development companies give their employee-inventors bonuses for valuable inventions, this is a matter of contract rather than law. Even without a written employment agreement, an employer may own rights to an employee-created invention under the “employed-to-invent” doctrine. If an inventor is employed — even without a written employment agreement — to accomplish a defined task, or is hired or directed to create an invention, the employer will own all rights to the subsequent invention. Most companies prefer to use a written employment agreement because it is more reliable and easier to enforce than an implied agreement. Both written employment agreements and the “employed-to-invent” rule allow the employer to become the owner of all patent rights. An employer may also aq
