Naming as co inventor

Wondering, if a one designer in a group pitches a well thought out idea, but no execution of it other than concept sketches and that concept is assigned to another designer to execute, refine, draft, design engineer and it the company wants to patent it with a utility patent, should the designer who came up with the idea be listed as a co-inventor on the patent?

I think this could go either way, but wondering of others experiences here.

Is it that it depends on the claims of the patent? If the designer who came up with the concept, but did not contribute to those claims, he/she does is not listed? What is fair practice?

From a professional realtionship standpoint, I would suggest including them as co-inventor. I don’t believe it takes away from the primary inventor at all and credit should be given where it is due. As a rule of thumb, I’ve always included individuals that have contributed in a meaningful way to the development of that idea. That could be anything from the originator of the concept to someone that simply suggests “hey what if you did this to it?” and I went down that path.

On all my patents, I have around 2-3 co-inventors on each patent which I feel have contributed at some point through the process. You don’t want to be known as “that guy” who steals ideas or doesn’t give credit where they think it’s due.

Yes they should 100%. And anyone else involved with the refinement in a way that contributed to the final result should generally be listed as well, that can include peer designers, engineers, etc.

In fact as it was explained to me by our legal department, failure to credit a co-innovator can invalidate the patent at a later time if they dispute their contributions and win.

just remember on any unassigned patent any listed inventor may execute a business deal with out the knowledge or agreement of any of the other inventors.

Zippy is right.

Here’s the law:

"35 U.S.C. 262 Joint owners.

In the absence of any agreement to the contrary, each of the joint owners of a patent may make, use, offer to sell, or sell the patented invention within the United States, or import the patented invention into the United States, without the consent of and without accounting to the other owners. "

You should NOT be casual about this. It can affect the validity of the patent and also, you can set yourselves up for trouble if you do this cavalierly in certan situations.

Here’s why you have to be VERY CAREFUL and accurate with naming Co-Inventors.:

http://www.inventored.org/coinvention/

And it can be seized as a asset by the gov and be part of probating a will.