What if there is 2 owners of one Invention.


-Owner 1 has discovered the idea, designed, and built the invention, and demands 65% of the profits.

-Owner 2 had pay for the patent provisional application and all the nessary payments, and agrees to have 35% of the profits.


How would Owner 1 garenntees getting 65% of the profits, throught the inventions market life, without having conficts???

your giving up 35% for an $80 provisional patent????? wow.

sure seems like the guarantee comes from the legal arrangement you made to secure the funding for the patent. unless i'm mistaken, under any such arrangement, you have the right to audit the person's books (a manufacturer, i assume) to ensure you are getting your money.

Well, there is other payments in mind, and helping family is good.

Multiple ownership of a patent is different from business partnership.

Once you assign your patent to someone else it does not mater what percentage it is, because all owners of the patent can independently profit from it as they please with no obligations towards the others.
It is assumed that you sold the new owner the right to use your patent.

The only way to control how much profit each owner takes is to form a corporation and assign the invention to it and not to the individual.
You can have 65% and the other partner 35% of the stock.

this is something i've been wondering about myself lately.

i have the industry contact. i have an idea for a product that falls under one of the company's catagories. just an idea right now. haven't even done the first bit of online research. but just read that they (a Chinese manufacturer) intend to start selling their current product themselves under their brand here in the U.S. (they are now sold under other multiple brand names).

now i'm thinking that i'd do the design for them (they supply components they'd use, minus the unique stuff i'd have to research myself) and they pay a reduced design fee and pony up for a co-owned patent. maybe with a proviso that i can't license out to competitors for a certain length of time so they have an advantage in the market.

going to have to research this a bit more. but thanks for the info.

Hi 123,

Q: What if there is 2 owners of one Invention. -Owner 1 has discovered the idea, designed, and built the invention, and demands 65% of the profits. -Owner 2 had pay for the patent provisional application and all the nessary payments, and agrees to have 35% of the profits. How would Owner 1 garenntees getting 65% of the profits, throught the inventions market life, without having conficts???

A. Paying for the application does not provide you any ownership in the patent. The named inventors always are the initial owners of the patent application upon filing the patent application. You can change the owner by preparing and filing an assignment: Assigning a patent application ( http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/sb0015.pdf ) or assigning an issued patent ( http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/sb0041.pdf )

JOINT OWNERS: Even if you both own the patent, either of you can take all the profits if there is no other agreement. see http://www.bitlaw.com/source/35usc/262.html

65%/35% split - the USPTO forms can be modified to show a 65%/35% ownership. However, because "profits" are vague and difficult to define, you should have a patent attorney draw up the patent assignment form.

Best to you. H