shop right
shop right. Patents. An employer’s right to an irrevocable, nonassignable, nonexclusive, royalty-free license in an employee’s invention, if the employee conceived and developed the invention during the course of employment and used company funds and materials. • The term derives from the idea that the right belongs to the shop, not to the employee. Employment contracts frequently contain patent-assignment clauses, but the employer is entitled to the license even if the employee retains the patent. If the employee or consultant was hired to invent, then the employer owns the resulting inventions. If an employee develops an invention independently, the employee is its sole owner. But if an employee uses the employer’s resources to make the invention, courts use the shop-right doctrine to compensate the employer. [Cases: Master and Servant 62. C.J.S. Employer–Employee Relationship §§ 115, 117–122.]
