A dilemma
A price-fixer cheats his buyers, but he may also do something worse — frighten them into doing nothing about it.
Last week, the Third Circuit made a ruling that will calm victims’ fears. Instead of bringing a claim they don’t want to prosecute, the court held, they may freely assign it to someone
The patent assignment says the assignor — the Inventor — will receive a share of any "recovery of damages" from litigation of the heart-stent patent that he assigned.
The assignee — let's call it Scimed — sues an infringer — which we'll call Cordis. Cordis in turn brings an action against Scimed, accusing it of
A great many of your bigger companies require new hires to sign contracts that convey to the employers any "Intellectual Property" that the workers "make or conceive" during the term of employment. Courts treat such assignments as valid in spite of the at-will nature of the relationship.
But what happens if a worker conceives an invention before starting the new
Doing things out of proper sequence can require a do-over. But in law, as elsewhere, the do-over may come too late.
Just ask Abraxis, a drug maker that today lost a lawsuit because the company it bought patents from didn't own them at the time.
Abraxis signed an Asset Purchase Agreement with AstraZeneca in April 2006.