Legal Question in Business Law in Colorado

No, he cannot. This sounds like a usurpation of a corporate opportunity at issue. You need to retain an attorney as soon as possible and get matters resolved.

Not so fast.

A patent application in the United States MUST be filed listing only the inventor(s). 35 USC 115 states, "The applicant shall make oath that he believes himself to be the original and first inventor of the process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or improvement thereof, for which he solicits a patent; and shall state of what country he is a citizen." Since a corporation cannot fulfill this requirement, the applicant must be the original inventor � a human being. Thus, the patent attorney did his or her job almost correctly; if you participated materially in the invention, then you should be listed as a co-inventor on the patent. That, though, is something that I cannot determine from your post. "Brainstorming" means a lot of things, not all of which qualify as inventorship.

The patent rights can later (and "later" means immediately upon filing the application or later) be assigned to the company. If the CEO fails to assign the patent rights to the company, then Mr. Murillo is correct; you need a lawyer.

THIS POST CONTAINS GENERAL INFORMATION AND IS INTENDED FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, NOR DOES IT CREATE ANY ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. FOR LEGAL ADVICE ON YOUR PARTICULAR MATTER, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.