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99 J. Pat. & Trademark Off. Soc'y 79 (2017-2018)
Express Employee Patent Assignments: Staying True to Intellectual Property's Credo of Rewarding Innovation

handle is hein.journals/jpatos99 and id is 85 raw text is: 79 Express Employee Patent Assignments: Staying True to Intellectual Property's Credo of Rewarding Innovation Paul Spiel* Abstract Employees often assign away rights without knowing they are doing so, introducing what some have called cube-wrap contracts. In ProCD, the 7th Circuit concluded that shrink-wrap agreements were valid, but the rea- soning the court used is not well suited for employment-related patent as- signments. Express employee patent assignments impermissibly overreach into an inventor's past and future and could be deemed unconscionable. Rewarding innovation is ingrained in the U.S. Constitution and is a major justification for patent law itself, but express assignments remove this in- centive. Public policy in tandem with unconscionability justifies a rework- ing of the ways in which employees expressly assign patentable inventions. I= Law Review Lead Note and Comment Editor, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University. As always, I would like to thank my wife for her love and support. 99 J. PAT. & TRADEMARK On. Soc'y 79(2017)

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