It is important to correctly designate inventors, especially in the US, as some mistakes can invalidate a patent. Therefore, we recommend that US case law is applied when determining the people that should be designated as inventors.

To be an inventor, one must have contributed constructively to the claims of the issued patent. The contribution can be large or small.

The history of the patent has to be assessed to find the correct inventors. The creation of the invention is a decisive factor. This is in contrast to the question of patentability, where it does not matter how the invention was created.

It is our experience that the question of inventorship can provoke very strong emotions, and it can be helpful to have external input to clarify this.