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An employee or contractor made the invention. Who owns it?
Ownership, inventorship and the paperwork that decides both.
There is a title gap. Address it before it is discovered.
Rights flow from inventors. Without a written assignment, the company title is at best arguable - and the inventor negotiating position improves dramatically once diligence has started.
- Approach every unassigned inventor now and obtain a written assignment.
- Fix the underlying templates - employment, consultancy, internship.
- Record the assignments with the Patent Office.
- Where someone has left and will not sign, take advice on the options quickly.
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This is educational guidance, not personalised legal advice. It cannot see your documents, your dates or the prior art, and those are usually what decide the answer. Use it to understand the question, then take advice on your own facts.
Not sure whether this applies to your invention?
The honest answer usually needs someone to look at your actual disclosure, your timeline and the prior art. That is a conversation, not an article.