Executive Summary: This article examines how the meaning of “inventor” differs across the United States, Europe, South Korea, China, and Japan, focusing on whether inventorship is determined by the inventions claimed or by everything described in the application. It distinguishes the legally relevant object of the inquiry from the evidence used to identify its creators: claims may define the invention, while the specification, drawings, prior art, and development record revea

Executive Summary: Bayh–Dole is best understood not as an automatic university-ownership rule, but as a conditional government–contractor bargain that permits a contractor to retain title to qualifying federally funded inventions while preserving disclosure and patenting duties, utilization reporting, a paid-up government license, domestic-manufacturing safeguards, nonprofit-specific restrictions, and discretionary march-in authority tied to practical application. A comparati

Executive Summary: This article argues that patent prosecutors should sometimes treat a restriction requirement as a commercial tool rather than a prosecution inconvenience. For platform technologies—such as a life-sciences program with claims to a compound, formulation, manufacturing method, dosing regimen, biomarker, drug-device combination, and second indication—the business value of the patent estate may lie in preserving separately protectable assets that can later suppo