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  • Who Owns Employee Inventions? The Employer Or The Employee? ( December 2004 )
    Mark  Schonfeld of Burns & Levinson LLP

    It is dangerous for an employer to assume that it owns an employee’s inventions merely because its employee invented them. Similarly, employees should not assume that they own inventions merely because they invented them at home. Employee-inventors present unique problems for the employer, and the answer to who owns an invention may depend on the type of invention. The rules for ownership of creations protected by a copyright differ from inventions protected by a patent.

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