I am looking for an old legal case. In it an employee of Sears invents a new item. Sears claims it for its own as he was an employee. The court held that it was not part of his employment and found against Sears. Anyone able to give a citation?
TriCyclic
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When Peter Roberts was eighteen he worked for Sears and invented the socket wrench with a kind of spring release that you could use with one hand. He had the patent and was defrauded by Sears.
That was in 1982.
You may be looking for something older.
Nuff Sed
Robers v. Sears, 617 F.2d 460, 205 U.S.P.Q. 788 (1980, upholding the 1978 decision of damages for plaintiff and ordering rescission of the license as of January 1977), plaintiff Sears clerk invented socket wrench improvement in 1963 and sold his patent rights to Sears for $10,000 when Sears knew it had a revolutionary breakthrough worth much more than that. They did not assert ownership "because he was an employee" when he created the invention, but were found liable for violation of his rights by misleading him during the negotiations. 573 F.2d 976 (7th Cir.1978).