Who owns a patent?
Said inventor usually owns the patent of its invention. However, by contracts and by common laws (employer-employee relation), the employers usually own the patents of inventions created by their employees by assignment. At the University of California, all employees sign a Patent Agreement or a Patent Acknowledgement Form when they first join the university. These agreements generally confer ownership rights of patents on inventions created by UC employees to the Regents of the University of California except under a few specified circumstances.
