Patenting Headache When Employee-Inventor Leaves

IP attorneys from Finnegan consider what happens when the genus application and species patent share a common inventor but lack common ownership, a scenario that could arise after an inventor changes employers. Companies should monitor the movement of inventors in and out of their institutions; when inventors leave and are likely to begin work related to their former position, prosecute all their pending patent applications expeditiously, and promptly present and prosecute at the PTO any unfiled subject matter they invented.