Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Michigan

First to Invent & Abandonment
I am ready to file a patent. The concept of my invention is fully described in a cross section drawing.

Besides the main concept, my patent contains all details necessary for someone to build, to specify and to use the invention.

Let us assume the remotest hypothesis that a company in California has this cross-section drawing in their archives.

Let us assume that an employee scratched this drawing 6 years ago, showed it to this boss and to a colleague and put the drawing away in the company's archive.

And let's further assume that the boss and the colleague didn't care for that drawing and nothing was done since then other than archiving the drawing and forgetting about it.

What risks do I run if these hypotheses happen to be true?

Could a company come out of nowhere and sue me?

In case they sue, what are the odds of them to win, although they did nothing for 6 years?

Is it correct to assume that the worst of the worst that could happen to me is losing the patent rights?

Or could they, on top of stealing my patent require some money compensation from me?

I am not aware of the existence of this company but I dreamt of it last week and I have been restless since.

Asked on 8/16/07, 12:09 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Nancy Delain Delain Law Office, PLLC

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Re: First to Invent & Abandonment

I assume your questions are not actually hypothetical. If, indeed, they are not, you need to hire a lawyer to represent you, preferably one who handles patent licensing matters and employer/employee IP rights divisions regularly (as we do).

This is not an area you should be mucking around in without good legal help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Answered on 8/22/07, 3:33 pm

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