Interference 102,760
(D.D.C. 1967). The Kimberly-Clark court identified those
principles at 916-917,
23 USPQ2d at 1925-26:
The court in Monsanto[] stated the pertinent
principles as follows:
A joint invention is the product of
collaboration of the inventive endeavors of
two or more persons working toward the same
end and producing an invention by their
aggregate efforts. To constitute a joint
invention, it is necessary that each of the
inventors work on the same subject matter
and make some contribution to the inventive
thought and the final result. Each needs to
perform but a part of the task if an invention
emerges from all of the steps taken together.
It is not necessary that the entire inventive
concept should occur to each of the joint
inventors, or that the two should physically
work on the project together. One may take
a step at one time, the other an approach
at different times. One may do more of the
experimental work while the other makes
suggestions from time to time. The fact that
each of the inventors plays a different role
and that the contribution of one may not be
as great as that of another does not detract
from the fact that the invention is joint if
each makes some original contribution, though
partial, to the final solution of the problem.
Monsanto, 269 F. Supp. at 262 [sic, 824], 154 USPQ at 262
(emphasis added).
The Monsanto court expressly stated that “[i]t is not
necessary that the entire inventive concept should occur to
each of the joint inventors. . . . One may do more of the
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