If an employee receives a grant from another funding agency and the activities were performed on company premises, who owns the output of the project?

• A. Joint ownership with the company
• B. Exclusively owned by the employee
• C. Joint ownership with the funding agency
• D. Shared ownership with all stakeholders

Answer: (A)

When work is funded from outside but performed on company premises, the company has invested the resources, facilities, and supervision needed to carry out the project. That investment gives the employer a strong claim to the outputs—often with the inventor’s status acknowledged—but ownership is typically shared with the company to reflect both the creation and the company’s resource support. In practice, inventors are named on the IP, but the formal ownership rests with the company, sometimes as joint ownership with the employee to recognize the inventor’s contribution. The grant sponsor’s rights depend on the specific contract, but without a clause shifting ownership to the funder, the arrangement that best fits general corporate practice is joint ownership with the company.