Only those persons who made an inventive contribution to the claimed invention may be listed as inventors. In the University, all employees are covered by the same patent policies. The University owns the rights to any invention made by its employees. The University policies require that you must demonstrate to the University's satisfaction, by submitting a disclosure and a statement, that your invention was made without the use of any University time, resources, or facilities, and is essentially unconnected to your University-based research. If you have made such an invention, the University will give you a formal waiver.
Joint ownership is implicit where there are co-inventors.
In the absence of a prior agreement, a joint owner of a patent can do as he or she chooses with an invention, with no responsibility to account to the other co-inventor or to share proceeds. A U.S. Patent is a Federal grant based on an invention, which gives the holder the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention in the United States. A patent is active for a twenty-year period which begins when the patent application is filed. However, the right to exclude others begins only when the patent is finally issued. A typical patent application includes some actual reduction to practice, and some constructive reduction to practice.