NDLI: The case of the omitted inventor

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Klee, M.M.
Copyright Year	1983
Abstract	What happens when an inventor who made a very small contribution to an invention is left off a patent? Can a company charged with infringement obtain a license from the omitted inventor and so scot free? That was the question before the court in the recent case of Ethicon v. U.S. Surgical. The answer the court gave was yes. The case involved surgical instruments, known as trocars, used to perform minimally invasive abdominal surgery. Ethicon obtained an exclusive license to a patent of Dr. InBae Yoon to an improved trocar (a "safety trocar") that was less likely to damage internal organs during the initial puncturing of the abdominal wall. Ethicon sold more than $300 million worth of instruments covered by the patent and paid Yoon more than $15 million in royalties. In 1989, Ethicon sued Surgical for infringement of two of the 55 claims of Yoon's patent. As is standard, Surgical took Yoon's deposition and asked about the origin of the invention. In that process, the name of Mr. Choi came up, but Yoon denied that he was an inventor of any of the claims of the patent. Surgical contacted Choi and was told a different story; namely, that Choi was an inventor of at least some parts of the patent. Based on this representation, Surgical took a license from Choi retroactive to the date of issuance of the patent. Surgical paid Choi $300000 for the license and promised to pay an additional $1 million if Surgical prevailed over Ethicon in the lawsuit.
Starting Page	110
Ending Page	114
Page Count	5
File Size	201176
File Format	PDF
ISSN	07395175
Volume Number	17
Issue Number	3
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	1998-05-01
Publisher Place	U.S.A.
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Computer aided software engineering Licenses Minimally invasive surgery Abdomen Law Testing Surgical instruments Legal factors Educational institutions Business
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Biomedical Engineering

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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