How is inventorship determined?
An inventor is one who makes creative input, or conceives of an invention. An invention may have more than one inventor. A person who simply follows directions and participates in the reduction of an invention to practice (proving and invention obtains desired or expected results) is not an inventor. U.S. patent law requires patent applications be signed by the true inventor(s). Co-authorship on a scientific journal article is not always equivalent to co-inventorship.
