Sec. 52.002. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:

(1) "Customer" means:

(A) an individual who enters into a contract with an invention developer for invention development services; or

(B) a firm, partnership, corporation, or other entity that enters into a contract with an invention developer for invention development services and is not purchasing those services as an adjunct to the traditional commercial enterprises in which the entity engages as a business.

(2) "Invention" means a discovery, process, machine, design, formulation, product, concept, idea, or any combination of these, regardless of whether patentable.

(3) "Invention developer" means an individual, firm, partnership, or corporation, or an agent, employee, officer, partner, or independent contractor of one of those entities, who:

(A) performs or offers to perform invention development services for a customer; and

(B) is not:

(i) a federal, state, or local government department or agency;

(ii) a nonprofit, charitable, scientific, or educational organization organized under the Texas Non-Profit Corporation Act (Article 1396-1.01 et seq., Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes) or formed under Title 1 and Chapter 22, Business Organizations Code, or described by Section 170(b)(1)(A), Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended;

(iii) an attorney acting within the scope of the attorney's professional license;

(iv) a person registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and acting within the scope of that person's professional license; or

(v) a person, firm, corporation, association, or other entity that does not charge a fee, including reimbursement for expenditures made or costs incurred by the entity, for invention development services other than payment made from a portion of the income a customer received by virtue of an act performed by the entity.

(4) "Invention development services" means an act done by or for an invention developer for the invention developer's procurement or attempted procurement of a licensee or buyer of an intellectual property right in an invention, including:

(A) evaluating, perfecting, marketing, or brokering an invention;

(B) performing a patent search; and

(C) preparing or prosecuting a patent application by a person not registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Amended by:

Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 885 (H.B. 2278), Sec. 2.01, eff. April 1, 2009.