A joint inventor is an individual who has not only made a significant contribution to the conception of the invention, but also participated in a “collaboration or concerted effort” towards the invention. 

If the inventor and another individual contributed to the invention as claimed, each party is a joint inventor. Each party is considered to have shared in the ideas that form the claims. The patent application should include both parties as applicants and the patent will be issued to them jointly. If, on the other hand, one of these persons has provided all of the ideas of the invention, and the other has only followed instructions in making it, the person who contributed the ideas is the sole inventor and the patent application and patent shall be in his/her name alone.