In Trieme Medical, LLC v. Angioscore, Inc., [2015-1504] (February 5, 2015) the Federal Circuit reversed the dismissal of Trieme’s complaint to have its assignor, Dr. Lotan, named as an inventor of Angioscore’s patents.

Lotan worked as a consultant for Angioscore, and had signed a consulting agreement with a Section 9(a) that gave Angioscore a license to any preexisting inventions made by Dr. Lotan:

(a) Inventions Retained and Licensed. Consultant has attached hereto, as part of Exhibit C, a list describing all inventions, original works of authorship, developments, improvements, and trade secrets which were made by Consultant prior to the date of this Agreement (collectively referred to as “Prior Inventions”), that belong solely to Consultant or belong to Consultant jointly with another and that relate to any of the Company’s current or proposed businesses, products or research and development; or if no such list is attached, Consultant represents that there are no such Prior Inventions. If, in the course of providing the Services, Consultant incorporates into a Company product, process or machine or into any Invention (as defined below), a Prior Invention owned by Consultant or in which Consultant has an interest, the Company is hereby granted and shall have a non-exclusive license (with the right to sublicense) to make, have made, copy, modify, make derivative works of, use, sell and otherwise distribute such Prior Inventions as part of or in connection with such product, process, machine or Invention.

and a Section 9(b) that gave Angioscore ownership of any inventions made during the term of the agreement:

(b) Assignment of Inventions. Consultant agrees to promptly disclose to the Company and hereby assigns to the Company, or its designee, all right, title and interest in and to all inventions, original works of authorship, developments, concepts, know-how, improvements or trade secrets, whether or not patentable, that Consultant may solely or jointly conceive or develop or reduce to practice during the term of this Agreement that relate to the Services (collectively referred to as “Inventions”).

Angioscore’s problem was that while the agreement was executed on May 1, 2003, Dr. Lotan actually began working before May 1, 2003, and the results of such pre-agreement work was not assigned to Angioscore.

The Federal Circuit could not determine on the sparse record of the motion to dismiss, whether or not the agreement transferred all of Dr. Lotan’s rights to Angioscore, or whether he retained some ownership based upon his pre-agreement work that he could validly transfer to Angioscore.  Angioscore may still prevail, but this case highlights the importance of knowing when a consultant or other inventor began working on the invention, and making sure that all rights, including those created before the execution of the agreement, are properly addressed.