This section defines key terms used in sections 417.400 to 417.436, including contract, customer, fee, invention, invention developer, and invention development services.
417.400. Definitions. — As used in sections 417.400 to 417.436, the following terms mean: (1) "Contract", an agreement by which an invention developer undertakes to develop or promote an invention for a customer; (2) "Customer", any person who is solicited by, inquires about, seeks the services of, or enters into a contract with, an invention developer for invention development services; (3) "Fee", any payment made by the customer to the invention developer including reimbursement for expenditures made or costs incurred by such invention developer, but does not include a payment made from a portion of the income received by a customer by virtue of invention development services performed by the invention developer; (4) "Invention", a process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, improvement upon the foregoing, or a concept; (5) "Invention developer", any person, or the agent, employee, or representative of the person, that develops or promotes, or offers to develop or promote, an invention of a customer in order that the customer's invention may be patented, licensed, or sold for manufacture or manufactured in large quantities, except the term does not include: (a) Any attorney registered to practice in any court in any state of the United States and acting within the scope of that person's professional license, or any person registered before the United States Patent and Trademark Office acting within the scope of that person's professional license; (b) A department or agency of federal, state or local government; (c) A charitable, scientific, educational, religious, or other organization, qualified under section 501(c)(3) or described in section 170(b)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; (d) An entity that does not charge a fee for invention development services other than any payment made solely from a portion of the income received by a customer by virtue of invention development services performed by the person; (6) "Invention development services", acts required or promised to be performed, or actually performed, or both, by an invention developer for a customer. (L. 1995 S.B. 80 & 88)