## Facts

- Francis W. Dunmore and Percival D. Lowell were radio engineers employed in the Bureau of Standards (Department of Commerce).
- Their work occurred in government radio laboratories used for testing, calibration, and research connected to radio communication.
- While employed, they developed inventions relating to the use of alternating current in radio broadcast receiving sets.
- The inventions were not within specific research problems assigned to them; they pursued the work with a superior’s knowledge and consent.
- They used government time, laboratories, and facilities to develop and perfect the inventions.
- Dunmore and Lowell obtained patents in their own names and granted Dubilier Condenser Corporation an exclusive license.
- The United States sued Dubilier in equity seeking a decree that the patents were held in trust for the government, compelled assignment, and an accounting.

## Issues

1. Whether inventions made by federal employees using government time and facilities are automatically owned by the United States absent an express agreement to assign.
2. Whether common-law rules governing employee inventions (employment “to invent” versus employer “shop right”) apply to federal employment.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed dismissal of the government’s suits.
- Patent rights belonged to the employee-inventors because they were not employed to invent the patented subject matter and had no express or implied duty to assign.
- The United States, like a private employer, obtained only a nonexclusive, royalty-free shop right to practice the inventions due to the use of government facilities and time.
- The Court rejected the government’s constructive-trust/public-policy theory; any broader transfer rule for federal employee inventions required action by Congress, not the courts.

## Legal Principles

- An employee hired or specifically engaged to invent is contractually obligated to assign resulting patent rights to the employer.
- If employment does not contemplate invention, an invention made during employment with the employer’s materials and facilities belongs to the employee, while the employer receives a nonexclusive shop right to use the invention.
- These employee-invention rules apply to the United States as an employer unless Congress provides otherwise; federal service alone does not divest an employee of patent rights.
- Courts will not impose a constructive trust transferring patent ownership to the government based solely on general public-policy arguments.

## Conclusion

Because the inventors were not employed to invent the subject matter and had no agreement to assign, the patents remained their property, with the United States limited to a nonexclusive shop right, and the requested assignment and accounting relief was denied.


United States v. Dubilier Condenser Corp., 289 U.S. 178 (1933)