By Kevin E. Noonan — Inventorship determinations have been called, in some of their incarnations, "one of the muddiest concepts in the muddy metaphysics of patent law." Mueller Brass Co. v. Reading Indus., 352 F. Supp. 1357, 1372 (E.D. Pa. 1972), aff’d, 487 F.3d 1395 (3d Cir. 1983); see In re VerHoef, 888 F.3d 1362, 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2018) (quoting Mueller Brass Co., 352 F. Supp. at 1372). Whatever complications may arise in "simple" inventorship determinations are amplified in interferences. These determinations are further burdened by over a century of case law, both in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office…
