United States Federal Circuit
Preston v. Marathon Oil Co., 2011-1013, 2011-1026
In a case dealing with the question of whether plaintiff owns patents related to the improvement of machinery used to extract methane gas from water-saturated coal in a coal bed methane gas well, or whether he assigned rights in those patents to defendant pursuant to an employment agreement entered into shortly after he began work as an at-will employee, the District Court's rulings are: 1) affirmed in part as to the ruling that plaintiff assigned his rights in the inventions to defendant pursuant to his employment agreement with defendant; and 2) vacated in part as to the judgment that plaintiff is in breach of that agreement because that assignment was automatic.
Appellate Information
- Decided 07/10/2012
- Published 07/10/2012
Judges
- O'MALLEY
Court
- United States Federal Circuit