Abstract
As collaboration between companies and research institutions increases, joint ownership of patents resulting from collaboration also increases. The agreement to own patents jointly is often entered into casually by parties who are unaware of the implications of joint ownership. Those implications are far from casual. It has been said that ‘joint owners of patents are at the mercy of each other’. Before agreeing to joint ownership, companies and research institutions should be aware of the procedural difficulties in obtaining a joint patent and that each owner is free to use or license the patent without consulting with or sharing the proceeds with the other owners.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.