According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the title transfer was recorded on March 17, 2010, five days after Apple began pre-selling its first iPad.
Using patent analysis studying US semi-conductor firms, they examined the transfer of knowledge between pairs of firms: the firm from which the employee was poached and the poacher.
Hoechst, which gave the American patent in 1994 to a non-profit organisation, will now transfer the worldwide rights outside America to a one-product company, making it immune from boycotts.