When incorporating our business, what happens to the software intellectual property we previously created as a team?

質問

We have been working on a new software product as team of four, located in MA, USA. As a team of engineers, we never really talked about the Intellectual Property included in our product. However, we would like to make a step towards bringing the product to the market, incorporating as a company. What happens to the IP we created together and how do we know who owns what?

or

回答: 3 public & 0 非公開

Yasushige yoshii
ビジネスコンサルタント

Unless you assign and register the ownership of the patent to the corporation, the patent will remain under the ownership of the original applicant(s) (unless your patent was file before Sept. 16, 2012. Before that, it's with the named inventors). It is not unusual for a corporation to be the applicant, separate from the inventors. In this case the corporation owns the patent. Once you are incorporated, assign the patent to the corporation and record it with the USPTO (to give public official notice of assignment). You can find essential information at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s301.html

最近の質問