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I'm not sure how that could be done. If I understand correctly it's the person with his name on the patent that is allowing these companies to use his patent in anyway they see fit. Their name is still on the patent so it wasn't exactly transferred.

Can someone clarify the mechanics of this?

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There is a difference between inventor and assignee.

Typically, inventor is a person or group of people that acutally invented something, while assignee is "the owner" of the patent that can use it fro protection, lawsuits, etc.

Noone can change inventor, but assignee can sell patent and reassign it to someone else.

Ah I see how that works now, so it would be possible to make the assignee a one time thing too but in the end what would prevent a "inventor" from assigning the patent to a troll in the first place and some troll create their own patents so that's an issue too.

Buying companies for patents would also leave another loophole. This issue isn't simple I guess.

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