Who is the inventor?

The person(s) who actually conceives the invention is the inventor-not all the inventors need to make the same level of contribution. Inventorship is determined based on the individual’s contribution to the inventive steps as defined in the patent claims. Note: Individuals that only carry out work at the direction of the inventor are not considered to be inventors under patent law.

Care must be given to naming/determining the inventors as a patent can be invalidated if the wrong inventors are listed. Keep in mind that authorship and inventorship are distinctly different in that co-authors are typically not inventors unless they participated in conception of one or more of the patent claims.