Lessons From Rock and Roll: Invention Assignment Agreements

The lyrics to Van Halen's "Right Now" offer excellent advice for companies wanting to ensure they own patents to employee inventions, Steven Haines of Seagate Technology and Chad Drown and Andrew Johnson of Faegre Baker Daniels explained in a November 2013 Corporate Counsel article.

To "catch a magic moment," companies must ensure their invention assignment agreements automatically transfer title upon an employee's creation of an invention. Many companies miss out on the magic by using language that creates a promise to assign without transferring legal title, which can lead to problems in litigation or with a transaction, the article explained.