Intellectual property
How engineering contributions relate to patent inventorship, how ownership rights can be assigned, and why these arrangements should be clear before development begins.
Inventorship
Under U.S. patent law, inventorship depends on the actual contribution to the invention claimed in the patent.
Proposing the product, funding development, or owning the company does not determine inventorship.
Ownership
Patent ownership rights can be transferred through a written intellectual property assignment agreement.
Being named as a co-inventor doesn’t mean an engineer has to retain ownership of the patent.
Founders may know what a product should accomplish while the engineering solutions still need to be developed. Building and testing prototypes brings technical problems that need solutions.
Some solutions involve routine engineering decisions; others lead to new inventions. Not every engineering task establishes inventorship.
If an engineer legally qualifies as a co-inventor based on their contribution to the claimed invention, they must be identified accordingly.
The AVA Labs approach
At AVA Labs, we’re generally happy to establish assignment agreements with founders so ownership of inventions developed for their projects is clearly defined.
Ideally, establish these arrangements before development begins so everyone understands how intellectual property will be handled.
Inventorship is determined by law. Ownership rights can be established through agreements. A founder can own the entire patent even when multiple engineers contributed to the invention.
When developing a hardware product, it's important to understand the difference between inventing something and owning the intellectual property.
Founders often come to AVA Labs with a clear understanding of what they want their product to accomplish, but the actual engineering solutions still need to be developed.
As we build and test prototypes, we encounter technical problems that require new solutions.
Sometimes those solutions involve routine engineering decisions. Other times, the engineering process leads to entirely new inventions.
This is how engineers at AVA Labs can become co-inventors on a client's patent.
It's not necessarily something we set out to do. It's a natural consequence of solving technical problems during product development.
Under U.S. patent law, inventorship is determined by who actually contributed to the invention claimed in the patent.
It's not determined by who originally proposed the product, who funded development, or who owns the company.
This means inventorship isn't something AVA Labs or the founder can simply choose. If an engineer legally qualifies as a co-inventor, they must be identified accordingly.
However, there's an important distinction between inventorship and ownership.
Being named as a co-inventor doesn't mean the engineer has to retain ownership of the patent.
Patent ownership rights can be transferred through a written intellectual property assignment agreement.
This is a common arrangement in engineering and product development.
At AVA Labs, we're generally happy to establish these agreements with founders so ownership of the inventions developed for their projects is clearly defined.
Ideally, these arrangements are established before development begins, so everyone understands how intellectual property will be handled.
The important distinction is that inventorship is determined by law, while ownership rights can be established through agreements.
A founder can own the entire patent even when multiple engineers contributed to the invention.