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- Published: 21 July 2017 21 July 2017
By James L. Kwak, Partner, Standley Law Group LLP
The inventor of an invention is the person or persons who intellectually contributed to the conception of the claimed invention. Those persons who merely helped assemble the invention (such as work done on a prototype), but did not conceive any portion of it, are not considered inventors. Those people are merely persons who helped reduce the invention to practice.
For example, let’s assume that Bob invented a new design for a gas grill. Bob makes sketches of his idea and prepares a written description. Bob takes his drawings to a grill manufacturer who takes his drawings and builds him a prototype. In this situation, Bob is the only inventor and the manufacturer is merely the outfit who helped Bob reduce his invention to practice.