Collaborate Now to Avoid the IP Dispute Later
A column authored by Jason Balich titled “Collaborate Now to Avoid the IP Dispute Later” was published in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP) Magazine. In this article, Jason explains how a joint development agreement prevents the unintended joint ownership that arises when employees of two companies invent together, and walks through how collaborators should identify the background IP each party brings to the project, allocate rights to anything new based on which party is best positioned to use it, and settle those terms before an invention exists rather than after a dispute surfaces.
Reprinted with permission from Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP). Copyright © 2026 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).