Who Is Considered an Inventor?

Often, multiple researchers – including trainees and research staff – may have contributed to an invention and may be inventors. Patent law defines an inventor of a patentable invention as anyone who conceives of an original, useful and non-obvious idea (a mental act). Quite often, an invention is co-invented by a faculty and a student because they are collaborating and “conceive of an invention” together. Other times, the faculty alone, or the student alone, may be deemed the inventor.