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  "data": {
    "topic": "invention-assignment",
    "state": "american-samoa",
    "frontmatter": {
      "title": "Employee Invention Assignment in American Samoa",
      "description": "American Samoa has no employee-invention-assignment statute and no local invention case law found in our review — the only invention-ownership provisions anywhere in its law are government contract-specialist regulations. Its reception statute, A.S.C.A. § 1.0201, imports so much of the common law of England as is suitable to local conditions, which the High Court reads as U.S.-modified common law ordinarily taken from the Restatements, so the predicted framework is the common-law employee-inventor default (hired-to-invent exception, employer shop right) — matching the federal patent baseline that applies of its own force — and the treatment of a post-employment holdover clause is unsettled.",
      "state": "American Samoa",
      "lastReviewed": "2026-07-03",
      "license": "CC BY 4.0",
      "authors": [
        "steven-obiajulu"
      ],
      "summary": {
        "bottomLine": "American Samoa has no employee-invention-assignment statute and no local invention case law found in our review — the only invention-ownership provisions anywhere in its law are pro-government contract-specialist regulations — so every invention-specific rule here is a prediction anchored in A.S.C.A. § 1.0201, which imports the common law of England as suitable to local conditions and which the High Court reads as U.S.-modified common law ordinarily taken from the Restatements; that imported default leaves the invention with the employee-inventor (hired-to-invent exception, employer shop right), matching the federal patent baseline that applies of its own force, and a post-employment holdover clause is unsettled, with imported reasonableness the predicted test.",
        "keyLaw": "No American Samoa invention-assignment statute; A.S.C.A. § 1.0201 (imported common law); Stanford v. Roche, 563 U.S. 776 (2011)",
        "statutoryCarveOut": "none",
        "defaultOwnership": "employee",
        "employeeNoticeRequired": "n/a",
        "holdoverClauseLimit": "unsettled",
        "carveOutScope": "American Samoa has no statutory own-time carve-out; an assignment clause is bounded only by ordinary contract law, the common-law default that A.S.C.A. § 1.0201 imports (employee-inventor default, hired-to-invent exception, employer shop right), and the federal patent overlay — and because no American Samoa court has decided an employee-invention case in our review, every invention-specific application is predictive."
      },
      "about": [
        "American Samoa invention assignment",
        "American Samoa employee invention ownership",
        "American Samoa no invention-assignment statute",
        "A.S.C.A. section 1.0201 reception of common law",
        "High Court of American Samoa Restatement practice",
        "American Samoa hired to invent",
        "American Samoa shop right",
        "American Samoa holdover trailing assignment"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "language": "中文",
          "status": "planned"
        },
        {
          "language": "Español",
          "status": "planned"
        },
        {
          "language": "Português",
          "status": "planned"
        },
        {
          "language": "Deutsch",
          "status": "planned"
        }
      ],
      "relatedForm": {
        "slug": "openagreements-confidentiality-invention-assignment-agreement"
      }
    },
    "questions": [
      {
        "slug": "statutory-carve-out",
        "label": "Can the employer require assignment of every invention?",
        "heading": "Can an American Samoa employer require assignment of every invention?",
        "answerText": "There is no statutory ceiling — and, outside two government-procurement regulations, no local invention law of any kind. American Samoa has no employee-invention-assignment statute, so nothing voids an assignment of a true own-time, own-resource invention the way California or Washington law does. The statute that shapes the analysis is A.S.C.A. § 1.0201, the reception statute, which gives effect to so much of the common law of England as is suitable to conditions in American Samoa wherever the territory's written law is silent. An assignment clause is therefore bounded by imported common law and ordinary contract limits, not by a legislative carve-out.",
        "sources": [
          {
            "id": "asca-1-0201-reception",
            "authorityType": "primary-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "A.S.C.A. § 1.0201 — Laws applicable in American Samoa",
            "citation": "A.S.C.A. § 1.0201.",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/code-annotated/1-0201-laws-applicable-in-american-samoa/",
            "proposition": "A.S.C.A. § 1.0201 receives the common law of England, as suitable to local conditions, as law in American Samoa — a rule about where courts find the governing law when written law is silent, not a carve-out limiting what an invention-assignment clause may reach.",
            "verbatimQuote": "so much of the common law of England as is suitable to conditions in American Samoa and not inconsistent with this section.",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-asca-1-0201-reception"
          },
          {
            "id": "tung-english-common-law",
            "authorityType": "case-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "Tung v. Ah Sam",
            "citation": "Tung v. Ah Sam, 4 A.S.R. 764 (Trial Div. 1971).",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/case-law/ah-sam-tung-v/",
            "proposition": "Tung v. Ah Sam reads the common law of England received by A.S.C.A. § 1.0201 as the body of jurisprudence applied and modified by the courts of the United States — so the imported law an invention dispute would meet is modern U.S. common law, not eighteenth-century English doctrine.",
            "verbatimQuote": "In this sense the common law of England means that body of jurisprudence as applied and modified by the courts of the United States at the time the statute was adopted and as since construed.",
            "date": "1971-04-05",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-tung-english-common-law"
          },
          {
            "id": "as-reg-4-1014-government",
            "authorityType": "regulation",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "A.S.A.C. § 4.1014 — Work-product ownership (discoveries and documents)",
            "citation": "A.S.A.C. § 4.1014.",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/regulation/4-1014-work-product-ownership-discoveries-and-documents/",
            "proposition": "A.S.A.C. § 4.1014, an administrative regulation for government contract specialists, assigns any and all inventions and work product relating to the position to the government — a narrow public-sector, pro-employer ownership rule that is the opposite of an employee-protective carve-out and does not reach private employment.",
            "verbatimQuote": "Any and all inventions, improvements, discoveries, documents, reports, memoranda, and data developed by the contract specialist relating to his position with the government will be the sole and absolute property of the government, and the government will be the sole and absolute owner of all patents, copyrights, or other rights in connection therewith.",
            "date": "1981-07-29",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-as-reg-4-1014-government"
          },
          {
            "id": "as-reg-4-3015-aspa",
            "authorityType": "regulation",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "A.S.A.C. § 4.3015 — Work-product ownership (discoveries and documents)",
            "citation": "A.S.A.C. § 4.3015.",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/regulation/4-3015-work-product-ownership-discoveries-and-documents/",
            "proposition": "A.S.A.C. § 4.3015 imposes the same wholesale work-product assignment for contract specialists at the American Samoa Power Authority — confirming that the territory's only invention-ownership provisions are position-specific government regulations, not a general employee-invention statute.",
            "verbatimQuote": "Any and all inventions, improvements, discoveries, documents, reports, memoranda, and data developed by the contract specialist relating to his or her position with ASPA will be the sole and absolute property of ASPA and ASPA will be the sole and absolute owner of all patents, copyrights, or other rights in connection therewith.",
            "date": "1984-12-19",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-as-reg-4-3015-aspa"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "slug": "employee-notice",
        "label": "Must the employer give the employee written notice of the carve-out?",
        "heading": "Must an American Samoa employer notify the employee?",
        "answerText": "Not applicable. A notice requirement of the kind California and Washington impose exists to alert the employee to a statutory own-time carve-out that limits the assignment. American Samoa has no invention-assignment statute at all, so there is no statutory line for a notice to mark. The reception statute, A.S.C.A. § 1.0201, is addressed to courts — it tells them what law applies in the territory — and imposes no employer notice or disclosure duty.",
        "sources": [
          {
            "id": "asca-1-0201-notice",
            "authorityType": "primary-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "A.S.C.A. § 1.0201 — Laws applicable in American Samoa",
            "citation": "A.S.C.A. § 1.0201.",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/code-annotated/1-0201-laws-applicable-in-american-samoa/",
            "proposition": "A.S.C.A. § 1.0201, the reception statute, is addressed to courts and imposes no employer notice or disclosure duty; with no invention-assignment statute anywhere in the territorial code, there is no carve-out for a notice to mark.",
            "verbatimQuote": "so much of the common law of England as is suitable to conditions in American Samoa and not inconsistent with this section.",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-asca-1-0201-notice"
          },
          {
            "id": "as-reg-4-1014-notice",
            "authorityType": "regulation",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "A.S.A.C. § 4.1014 — Work-product ownership (discoveries and documents)",
            "citation": "A.S.A.C. § 4.1014.",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/regulation/4-1014-work-product-ownership-discoveries-and-documents/",
            "proposition": "A.S.A.C. § 4.1014, the closest thing to local invention-ownership law, assigns the contract specialist's work product to the government without any notice, disclosure, or acknowledgment requirement — confirming that no American Samoa provision imposes an employee-notice duty.",
            "verbatimQuote": "Any and all inventions, improvements, discoveries, documents, reports, memoranda, and data developed by the contract specialist relating to his position with the government will be the sole and absolute property of the government, and the government will be the sole and absolute owner of all patents, copyrights, or other rights in connection therewith.",
            "date": "1981-07-29",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-as-reg-4-1014-notice"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "slug": "default-ownership",
        "label": "Absent a written assignment, who owns the invention?",
        "heading": "Who owns an invention by default in American Samoa?",
        "answerText": "The inventor, unless hired to invent — as a prediction of the A.S.C.A. § 1.0201 cascade, not a local holding. No American Samoa decision addresses employee-invention ownership in our review. The federal patent baseline — which applies in the territory of its own force — is that rights in an invention belong to the person who conceived it, with a narrow exception for the employee hired to invent, and the common law that § 1.0201 imports carries the same default. The local and federal layers point the same way.",
        "sources": [
          {
            "id": "ilalio-common-law-contracts",
            "authorityType": "case-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "Development Bank of American Samoa v. Ilalio",
            "citation": "Development Bank of American Samoa v. Ilalio, 5 A.S.R.2d 1 (Trial Div. 1987).",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/case-law/development-bank-v-ilalio/",
            "proposition": "Development Bank v. Ilalio confirms that the common law of contracts applies in American Samoa unless a territorial statute conflicts or local conditions make it unsuitable — the channel through which the common-law employee-inventor default would reach an invention dispute.",
            "verbatimQuote": "The common law of contracts applies in American Samoa unless it conflicts with a territorial statute or is unsuitable to local conditions.",
            "date": "1987-07-02",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-ilalio-common-law-contracts"
          },
          {
            "id": "tung-restatement-default",
            "authorityType": "case-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "Tung v. Ah Sam",
            "citation": "Tung v. Ah Sam, 4 A.S.R. 764 (Trial Div. 1971).",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/case-law/ah-sam-tung-v/",
            "proposition": "Tung v. Ah Sam holds that, where not bound by prior decision, the High Court should ordinarily follow the Restatement of the Law in construing the common law — a judge-made practice, not a statutory command, and the route by which the Restatement-expressed employee-inventor default would become the local rule.",
            "verbatimQuote": "In defining the common law, and where not bound otherwise by prior decision of this Court, it is ordinarily appropriate that the Restatement of the Law be followed in order to more nearly effect uniformity of decision.",
            "date": "1971-04-05",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-tung-restatement-default"
          },
          {
            "id": "us-35-usc-100c",
            "authorityType": "primary-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "35 U.S.C. § 100(c) — Definitions",
            "citation": "35 U.S.C. § 100(c).",
            "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title35-section100&num=0&edition=prelim",
            "proposition": "35 U.S.C. § 100(c) defines the United States for patent purposes to include the territories and possessions, so the Patent Act — including its inventor-first ownership baseline and written-assignment mechanics — applies in American Samoa of its own force.",
            "verbatimQuote": "The terms \"United States\" and \"this country\" mean the United States of America, its territories and possessions.",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-us-35-usc-100c"
          },
          {
            "id": "stanford-inventor",
            "authorityType": "case-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "Bd. of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior Univ. v. Roche Molecular Systems",
            "citation": "Bd. of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior Univ. v. Roche Molecular Sys., Inc., 563 U.S. 776 (2011).",
            "url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/218133/board-of-trustees-of-the-leland-stanford-junior-university-v-roche/",
            "deepLink": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/218133/board-of-trustees-of-the-leland-stanford-junior-university-v-roche/#:~:text=Since%201790%2C%20the%20patent%20law,invention%20belong%20to%20the%20inventor.",
            "proposition": "Stanford v. Roche confirms the long-standing premise of U.S. patent law that rights in an invention belong to the inventor, the baseline against which any assignment clause is measured.",
            "verbatimQuote": "Since 1790, the patent law has operated on the premise that rights in an invention belong to the inventor.",
            "date": "2011-06-06",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-stanford-inventor"
          },
          {
            "id": "dubilier-hired-to-invent",
            "authorityType": "case-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "United States v. Dubilier Condenser Corp.",
            "citation": "United States v. Dubilier Condenser Corp., 289 U.S. 178 (1933).",
            "url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1087847/united-states-v-dubilier-condenser-corp/",
            "deepLink": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1087847/united-states-v-dubilier-condenser-corp/#:~:text=One%20employed%20to%20make%20an,his%20employer%20any%20patent%20obtained.",
            "proposition": "United States v. Dubilier Condenser Corp. holds that an employee hired to make an invention who succeeds during the term of service is bound to assign the resulting patent to the employer.",
            "verbatimQuote": "One employed to make an invention, who succeeds, during his term of service, in accomplishing that task, is bound to assign to his employer any patent obtained.",
            "date": "1933-05-08",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-dubilier-hired-to-invent"
          },
          {
            "id": "us-17-usc-101-territories",
            "authorityType": "primary-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "17 U.S.C. § 101 — Definitions",
            "citation": "17 U.S.C. § 101.",
            "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title17-section101&num=0&edition=prelim",
            "proposition": "17 U.S.C. § 101 defines the geographic United States as the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the organized territories — a definition that textually excludes unorganized American Samoa and makes the operation of Title 17's geographically-bounded provisions there an open question, without establishing that federal copyright law is inapplicable.",
            "verbatimQuote": "The \"United States\", when used in a geographical sense, comprises the several States, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the organized territories under the jurisdiction of the United States Government.",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-us-17-usc-101-territories"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "slug": "holdover-clause-limit",
        "label": "Are post-employment trailing-assignment clauses enforceable?",
        "heading": "Are trailing-assignment (holdover) clauses enforceable in American Samoa?",
        "answerText": "Unsettled. No American Samoa statute addresses trailing or holdover invention-assignment clauses — there is no duration cap because there is no invention-assignment statute at all — and no local decision on any post-employment employment restraint, holdover or otherwise, was found in our review. The best-supported prediction is that the High Court would treat a holdover clause as a restraint tested under the imported common-law reasonableness principles, but the local anchors are a lease covenant and a contract-reformation dictum, so the honest answer stays unsettled rather than resting on a reasonableness holding.",
        "sources": [
          {
            "id": "lindgren-covenant-holdover",
            "authorityType": "case-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "Lindgren v. Betham",
            "citation": "Lindgren v. Betham, 20 A.S.R.2d 98 (App. Div. 1992).",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/case-law/lindgren-v-betham/",
            "proposition": "Lindgren v. Betham, enforcing a restrictive covenant in a lease, states the nearest local rule for covenants generally — courts enforce unless enforcement would be inequitable or contrary to public policy — the framework a post-employment invention-holdover clause would most likely meet, with its equity override supplying the small-island hardship argument.",
            "verbatimQuote": "When presented with a violation of a restrictive covenant, courts are obligated to enforce the covenant unless the complaining party can show that enforcement would be inequitable or contrary to public policy.",
            "date": "1992-03-13",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-lindgren-covenant-holdover"
          },
          {
            "id": "samoa-aviation-excise-holdover",
            "authorityType": "case-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "American Samoa Gov't v. Samoa Aviation, Inc.",
            "citation": "American Samoa Gov't v. Samoa Aviation, Inc., 13 A.S.R.2d 65 (Trial Div. 1989) (on motions for new trial and modification).",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/case-law/american-samoa-govt-v-samoa-aviation-inc-d96/",
            "proposition": "American Samoa Gov't v. Samoa Aviation holds, on reconsideration of a defective-lease dispute, that a court can excise illegal portions of a contract and enforce the remainder or modify an illegal term to conform to law — citing a covenant-not-to-compete case (Alston Studios) as authority, the only appearance of a non-compete authority in the local corpus and the basis for predicting reformation rather than wholesale voiding of an overbroad holdover clause.",
            "verbatimQuote": "Finally, it is well settled that a court can excise the illegal portions of a contract and enforce the remainder, with or without other compensating adjustments in the contractual obligations of the parties; or may modify an illegal term to make it conform to the law.",
            "date": "1989-12-07",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-samoa-aviation-excise-holdover"
          },
          {
            "id": "ilalio-unconscionability-holdover",
            "authorityType": "case-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "Development Bank of American Samoa v. Ilalio",
            "citation": "Development Bank of American Samoa v. Ilalio, 5 A.S.R.2d 1 (Trial Div. 1987).",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/case-law/development-bank-v-ilalio/",
            "proposition": "Development Bank v. Ilalio holds a contract unenforceable for unconscionability only when both its substance and the bargaining process are unconscionable — the screen a one-sided holdover clause imposed on a low-bargaining-power worker would face in the High Court.",
            "verbatimQuote": "A contract is ordinarily rendered unenforceable on the ground of unconscionability only when both its substance and the bargaining process leading up to it are unconscionable.",
            "date": "1987-07-02",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-ilalio-unconscionability-holdover"
          },
          {
            "id": "palelei-atwill-consideration",
            "authorityType": "case-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "Palelei v. Star-Kist Samoa, Inc.",
            "citation": "Palelei v. Star-Kist Samoa, Inc., 5 A.S.R.2d 162 (Trial Div. 1987).",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/case-law/5asr2d162/",
            "proposition": "Palelei v. Star-Kist establishes American Samoa's at-will employment baseline — the backdrop against which a mid-employment assignment agreement would be signed, with no local case blessing continued at-will employment as consideration for a restraint.",
            "verbatimQuote": "If the parties to an employment contract have neither fixed a definite term of employment nor created any contractual obstacle to the right of discretionary discharge, then the contract is for employment at will and the employer may discharge the employee without incurring liability.",
            "date": "1987-09-23",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-palelei-atwill-consideration"
          },
          {
            "id": "us-28-usc-1338-forum",
            "authorityType": "primary-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "28 U.S.C. § 1338(a) — Patents, plant variety protection, copyrights, mask works, designs, trademarks, and unfair competition",
            "citation": "28 U.S.C. § 1338(a).",
            "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title28-section1338&num=0&edition=prelim",
            "proposition": "28 U.S.C. § 1338(a) bars State courts — a term the statute defines to include American Samoa — from hearing federal patent and copyright infringement claims, so the High Court can decide contract-ownership disputes but not infringement, and the bar's coverage of patents, plant-variety protection, and copyrights (not trade secrets) leaves the forum for a federal trade-secret claim in the territory untested.",
            "verbatimQuote": "No State court shall have jurisdiction over any claim for relief arising under any Act of Congress relating to patents, plant variety protection, or copyrights. For purposes of this subsection, the term \"State\" includes any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-us-28-usc-1338-forum"
          },
          {
            "id": "asca-1-0201-practice",
            "authorityType": "primary-law",
            "tier": "primary-source-backed",
            "title": "A.S.C.A. § 1.0201 — Laws applicable in American Samoa",
            "citation": "A.S.C.A. § 1.0201.",
            "url": "https://asbar.org/code-annotated/1-0201-laws-applicable-in-american-samoa/",
            "proposition": "A.S.C.A. § 1.0201 supplies only a reception rule importing the suitable common law; no American Samoa statute or decision creates invention-specific carve-outs, notice safe harbors, or duration caps, so drafting must assume imported common-law reasonableness review rather than any local safe harbor.",
            "verbatimQuote": "so much of the common law of England as is suitable to conditions in American Samoa and not inconsistent with this section.",
            "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/invention-assignment/us/american-samoa#src-asca-1-0201-practice"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}