Resulting in part from the lack of effective incentives for innovation, the rate of innovation in American technology has declined in recent years. In this Note, Mr. Dratler contends that the current patent laws fail to provide effective incentives to inventors, most of whom work for large corporate or government employers, because the laws allow employers to require employee-inventors to assign all potential inventions to their employers. Moreover, incentives for supervisors and middle-level managers, whose support is critical in the process of innovation, do not exist. To provide the needed incentives, Mr. Dratler propose that the patent laws be revised to divide ownership of patent rights in an invention between inventor and employer, according to how much "extraordinary'" effort each has invested in the innovative process. Such division would be accomplished through private bargaining between inventor and employer, with arbitration in cases of impasse.