| Congratulations, You Just Added an Inventor
Thurs., April 9, 2026 – 11:00 AM |
| Inventorship turns on ‘conception, not effort—someone who wrote the code or built the hardware may not be an inventor, while advisors, customers, or other contributors sometimes are. These errors are often silent, easy to miss, and frequently discovered only during diligence or enforcement, when they’re hardest to fix (if they are fixable at all). Joint inventorship can be more complicated, requiring a person to share in the conception of a claimed invention to be so titled. This session clarifies how inventorship actually works in modern teams in the U.S. and internationally, offers practical decision tools for identifying true inventors, and shows how to document conception boundaries before “helpful input” becomes a legal problem. |
Presenters:
- Ashley Sloat, Ph.D, President, Director of Patent Strategy, Aurora Consulting
- Tom Moga, Member, Dykema
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| Inventors as Employees: Managing the IP Created by Your Team
Thurs., April 16 – 11:00 AM |
| The question of who owns employee-created intellectual property is not always a straightforward answer. However, there are some simple steps that employers can take to not only assure that their rights are protected but to also maintain transparent policies that are understood and embraced company-wide. Join us for a discussion on the types of policies and agreements that can take the uncertainty out of IP ownership for businesses. We will address how these issues are best managed in the United States as well nuances and considerations for businesses and employees abroad. |
Presenters:
- Melvin Muskovitz, Senior Counsel, Dykema
- Kristen Pursley, IP Attorney/Registered Patent Attorney, The Dobrusin Law Firm
- Tina Suntres, MSc, MBA, Assistant Director, Software, Content Licensing and Research Partnerships, University of Michigan
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