Inventorship vs. Authorship

    The differences between authorship and inventorship are subtle but significant. Inventorship is defined legally where authorship is decided subjectively.

    Generally, authorship is granted to individuals who have assisted in the research and the development of an idea but have not participated in the actual creation of the invention or discovery. As a result, the names of these contributors are included on publications relating to the invention. On the other hand, inventorship status is awarded to those individuals who were elemental in the conception and creation of an invention or discovery. These individuals must all be listed on a patent. Failure to do so can invalidate the patent resulting in a possible loss of intellectual property rights.

   Technically, there are two elements that must exist that defines an "invention". First, there is "conception" or the mental formulation of the idea. The conception must be complete enough to enable anyone with ordinary skill in the pertinent art to "reduce the invention to practice".

    "Reduce the invention to practice" is the second element that determines what is considered an invention.  Reduction to practice is the actual manifestation of the invention to demonstrate how it would operate. A constructive reduction to practice occurs when a patent application with adequate disclosure is filed on the invention.  A construction reduction of practice is considered to be the equivalent of an actual reduction to practice for most legal purposes.

    In order to be considered an inventor, an individual must have made some kind of material contribution to the conception of the invention.  Simply taking part in the reduction to practice does not award inventorship status to an individual. However, the concept of the proposed invention must be so complete, that any person skilled in the art would be able to make and use the invention by routine experimentation. 

    But if the concept requires more ingenuity in order to reduce the invention to practice, then the person applying that ingenuity is making a material contribution to the conception of the invention.  Often, the conception and reduction to practice happen concurrently.  In other words, if there was no preconceived idea and the invention was created in the course of actual experiments then inventorship is still assigned.

As an aside, a person who suggests an idea without a way to achieve it, is not considered an inventor.