Intellectual Property and Assessing its Financial Value

13

Overview

Accurate record keeping

Patents

Especially under the first-to-invent system in the United States (valid

until 2013), it is important for inventors to document when they first

conceived an invention, as well as all the activities that were carried out

in actually “reducing the invention to practice”, either by making or

carrying out the invention or by filing a patent application for it, referred

to as “constructive” reduction to practice.

All work and research activities should be documented in written

form, and should be dated and witnessed by another person. A

preferred form for documenting this type of information is an inventor’s