Legal Question in Intellectual Property in District of Columbia

Employer-employee invention rights

If someone invents something on their own time but with a company's resources and on the company's premise....AND they signed an employment agreement on their hire date that states ''any and all inventions developed during my employment here are the sole and exclusive property of this company''....they have relinquished ALL rights to the invention, right? The shop-right doctrine does not exist and they have absolutely no rights to the invention despite the invention being outside their scope of employment and on their own time, right?


Asked on 8/21/06, 6:38 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Brett Dorny Law Office of Brett N. Dorny

Re: Employer-employee invention rights

The shop rights doctrine relates to situations when there is no employment agreement or when the employment agreement is silent about ownership of inventions. Under the shop rights doctrine, a company may have a right to make, use, sell or offer for sale a product covered by a patent on an invention created on company time with company resources.

If there is an employment agreement which states that the company owns all inventions of the employee developed during the period of employment, then the company would own all such inventions, whether developed as part of the employees responsibilities or not, and whether on company time or not. However, ownership of an invention can be very fact specific. You should consult competent patent counsel who can provide specific advice after review of the relevant facts in your case.

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Answered on 8/23/06, 1:57 am


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