87-602. Terms, defined.

For purposes of the Invention Development Services Disclosure Act:

(1) Contract for invention development services shall mean a contract by which an invention developer undertakes invention development services for a customer;

(2) Customer shall mean any person, firm, partnership, limited liability company, corporation, or other entity that enters into a contract for invention development services, except any firm, limited liability company, corporation, or other entity, other than a natural person, purchasing invention development services as an adjunct to the traditional commercial enterprises in which it engages as a livelihood;

(3) Invention shall mean a discovery, process, machine, design, formulation, product, concept, or idea, or any combination thereof, whether patentable or not;

(4) Invention developer shall mean any person, firm, partnership, limited liability company, or corporation and any agent, employee, officer, partner, member, or independent contractor thereof who offers to perform or performs for a customer any invention development services. Invention developer shall not include:

(a) Any department or agency of the federal, state, or local government;

(b) Any nonprofit, charitable, scientific, or educational organization described in section 170(b)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code;

(c) Any attorney acting within the scope of the attorney's professional license;

(d) Any person duly registered before the United States Patent and Trademark Office acting within the scope of that person's professional license; or

(e) Any person, firm, limited liability company, corporation, association, or other entity that does not charge a fee for invention development services other than any payment made from a portion of the income received by a customer by virtue of such acts performed by such entity. For purposes of this subdivision, fee shall include any payment made by the customer to such entity including reimbursement for expenditures made or costs incurred by such entity; and

(5) Invention development services shall mean any act involved in the evaluation of an invention for commercial potential and the marketing, brokering, or promoting of such an invention done by or for an invention developer for the purpose of procuring a licensee or buyer for an intellectual property right in the invention.

Source:Laws 1991, LB 96, § 2; Laws 1993, LB 121, § 561; Laws 1995, LB 574, § 92.