The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) issued an opinion this week that stands as a reminder to companies that locking up employee assignments of patents as early as possible is of true importance. In Advanced Video Technologies LLC v. HTC Corp (Appeal No. 2016-2309 decided January 11, 2018) the Federal Circuit upheld the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York’s decision dismissing Advanced Video Technologies’ complaint for lack of standing. Advanced Video Technologies was held to not be the full owner of the rights in the 5,781,788 patent because one of the employee inventors had never assigned her interest in the invention to the company. The employment agreement Advanced Video Technologies relied on included language that the employee “will assign to the company” the right, title, and interest in the inventions. The Federal Circuit held this “will assign” language was a mere promise and did not effect a present assignment of the employee’s interest. As the employee was not a party to the suit against HTC, the Federal Circuit affirmed dismissal of the case. While there was a dissenting opinion by Judge Newman that would have held the employment agreement to be an assignment, the current state of the law requires more for actual assignments than was done in the employment agreement. The lesson is that relying on only an employment agreement may not be enough, and companies should receive express assignments from their employees whenever possible. Click here to read the full opinion of the Federal Circuit.