Joint Patent Filing Agreement

The High Court of England and Wales in Edwards Lifesciences AG v. Cook Biotech Incorporated5 confirmed that the applicant for the subsequent application must be entitled to the invention on the date of subsequent application. The initial U.S. application 60/179,195, on behalf of Joe Obermiller, Francisco Osse and Patricia Thorpe, was filed on January 31, 2000 and the PCT application no. PCT/US01/03095 was filed by Cook Biotech on January 31, 2001, with priority claimed for the interim application in the United States. The national European phase of the European application was issued on 25 April 2007 under the title EP 1 255 510 B1 B1 and in the United Kingdom, Edwards validated the revocation of the patent and Cook against infringement. In the United States, legislation gives inventors the right to have a patent. If the invention is made jointly by two or more people, they are required to jointly apply for a patent. This right is reserved for legal representatives in the event of death or incapacity to work. In the event of a refusal to apply, the right is granted to persons with a property interest.1 In France, the rights of the co-owners are governed by art. L613-29 of the Intellectual Property Act.

Any co-owner of the patent is entitled to exploit the invention and to act against the infringers for his own benefit. Any co-owner is entitled to grant non-exclusive licences to third parties, provided that he appropriately compensates the co-owner who has not used the patent himself or issued licenses. If there is no agreement on compensation, the district court will set the amount. A proposed licensing agreement must be notified to the other co-owner, as well as an offer to sell the share at a fixed price. In the event of a dispute, the regional court will set the price. Patent co-ownership rights in the United States are governed by U.S. patent law: Section 6 of the German Patent Act gives the inventor or his rightful owner the right to have a patent. Section 6 also states that if two or more people have made an invention together, the rights to the patent are shared jointly by these individuals. One possible solution is to obtain a specific allocation of the priority request at or before the first request. Sometimes it`s not practical when inventors go, and therefore can`t be available. However, another recent case in the United Kingdom confirmed that a prospective assignment of an employee`s future inventions was effective in ensuring the right to priority.

It is therefore sufficient to have an employment contract or other agreement to ensure that a company can effectively claim priority in the subsequent application filed in the name of the company and assert a valid right to the priority of an American name.