Stay up to speed on compliance measures of corporate IP ownership

Intellectual property (IP) ownership is the fundamental principle for IP. We need to first clarify and identify the ownership of IP before we can reasonably distribute benefits between the inventor and the rights holders. On the issues of IP ownership, how to co-ordinate the interests among the employees as the inventor, and the enterprise as the rights holder, is important to keep employees motivated to create and encourage the enterprises to keep innovating in accumulating intellectual properties.

Ownership disputes

The author recently handled a case of patent disputes. The plaintiff is the employer and the defendant is a former employee of that corporate. Because that employee was in some conflicts with the employer, he decided to apply for a patent for the technological product he created during his employment at the corporate before the termination of his employment. The employee changed the bibliography for the patent and transferred the patent to be under the name of his father (second defendant) to evade the plaintiff’s investigation.

Our law firm represented the plaintiff and collected the employment contract, as well as the name card of the first defendant, to prove that an employment relationship existed between the plaintiff and the first defendant. We also collected the meeting minutes in which the defendant participated and signed his attendance to prove that the patent which the defendant applied is related to his post at the corporate.