The Patent laws of all countries require that the inventors be named in the application for a patent at the time of filing the patent application. On the other hand publication of inventions in technical journals often requires the naming of the authors who authored the article. Now who is an inventor under the Patents Act? Who can be named as inventors in a patent application? What are the consequences of such names being identified in a granted patent? This article will attempt to discuss the issues relating to the identification and naming of inventors in patent applications.
Creators of Intellectual Work
Firstly laws governing patents, industrial designs and copyright make a clear distinction between the creator of the work and the legal owner of the work so created. The creator of a work is the person whose creative effort or mental output resulted in the work.