# Assignee

The legal owner of a patent, who may or may not be the inventor. When an employee invents something in the course of their employment, most companies require inventors to assign patent rights to the employer. The assignee appears on the patent document and has the right to license or enforce the patent.

**Full entry:** https://patentbrief.org/glossary/assignee

**All patent terms:** https://patentbrief.org/glossary

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_Source: PatentBrief — https://patentbrief.org. A plain-English glossary of US patent terms._