An inventor is an individual who contributed to the conception of at least one claimed invention. Inventorship is based on the substance of the inventive contribution—not job title, funding, supervision, authorship, or company ownership. A company cannot be an inventor.

The applicant is the person or entity authorized to file and pursue the patent application. An applicant may be the inventor, a company that received an assignment, a party to whom the inventor is obligated to assign, or another qualifying party. The inventor and applicant may therefore be different. Correctly identifying both is important because errors can affect USPTO records, ownership, and the enforceability of resulting rights.