Source: http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2016/09/crispr-patent-confusion-over-lawyer.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 15:55:42+00:00

Document:
The bolded sentence of the Grens article, as written, is inaccurate. There can be pro se patent applicants.
refer to 37 CFR 1.32 which provides a power of attorney may be held by "One or more joint inventors." See generally MPEP 402.
(a) Joint inventions. When an invention is made by two or more persons jointly, they shall apply for patent jointly and each make the required oath, except as otherwise provided in this title. Inventors may apply for a patent jointly even though (1) they did not physically work together or at the same time, (2) each did not make the same type or amount of contribution, or (3) each did not make a contribution to the subject matter of every claim of the patent.
(b) Omitted inventor. If a joint inventor refuses to join in an application for patent or cannot be found or reached after diligent effort, the application may be made by the other inventor on behalf of himself and the omitted inventor. The Director, on proof of the pertinent facts and after such notice to the omitted inventor as he prescribes, may grant a patent to the inventor making the application, subject to the same rights which the omitted inventor would have had if he had been joined. The omitted inventor may subsequently join in the application.
(c) Correction of errors in application. Whenever through error a person is named in an application for patent as the inventor, or through error an inventor is not named in an application, the Director may permit the application to be amended accordingly, under such terms as he prescribes.
(4) State that the application was made or was authorized to be made by the person executing the oath or declaration.
(2) A mailing address where the inventor customarily receives mail, and residence, if an inventor lives at a location which is different from where the inventor customarily receives mail, for each inventor.
(c) A person may not execute an oath or declaration for an application unless that person has reviewed and understands the contents of the application, including the claims, and is aware of the duty to disclose to the Office all information known to the person to be material to patentability as defined in § 1.56. There is no minimum age for a person to be qualified to execute an oath or declaration, but the person must be competent to execute, i.e., understand, the document that the person is executing.
(d)(1) A newly executed oath or declaration under § 1.63, or substitute statement under § 1.64, is not required under §§ 1.51(b)(2) and 1.53(f), or under §§ 1.497 and 1.1021(d), for an inventor in a continuing application that claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) in compliance with § 1.78 of an earlier-filed application, provided that an oath or declaration in compliance with this section, or substitute statement under § 1.64, was executed by or with respect to such inventor and was filed in the earlier-filed application, and a copy of such oath, declaration, or substitute statement showing the signature or an indication thereon that it was executed, is submitted in the continuing application.
(2) The inventorship of a continuing application filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(a) is the inventor or joint inventors specified in the application data sheet filed before or concurrently with the copy of the inventor's oath or declaration from the earlier-filed application. If an application data sheet is not filed before or concurrently with the copy of the inventor's oath or declaration from the earlier-filed application, the inventorship is the inventorship set forth in the copy of the inventor's oath or declaration from the earlier-filed application, unless it is accompanied by a statement signed pursuant to § 1.33(b) stating the name of each inventor in the continuing application.
(3) Any new joint inventor named in the continuing application must provide an oath or declaration in compliance with this section, except as provided for in § 1.64.
Ownership in patents with joint inventors parallels joint tenancy. Each joint inventor owns a right to all claims, even to claims to which a particular joint inventor did NOT contribute (Recall the Lucent/Fraunhofer matter). An issue in the present dispute might be whether one joint inventor can name patent counsel for prosecution of the application without informing the other joint inventors.
Although Cox was retained by UH [Houston], Chu executed a Declaration and Power of Attorney authorizing Cox to represent him during the prosecution of the patents-in-suit. In approximately 1990, the University of Alabama initiated an interference proceeding on behalf of Chu's former student, Wu, ("Wu Interference") to contest priority of invention and inventorship of the patents-in-suit. In essence, Wu and one of his graduate students claimed that they had first independently discovered the 123 Y-B-C-O superconductor.

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