Asking if I'll be paid for an extension to an internship contract

Question

I would like to ask about the professional, polite, and conservative way of making sure that my rights are preserved in my current situation. I've been doing a paid internship over the summer that is coming to a close. It turned out to be quite successful as I have come up with a method that the company wants to patent.

My supervisor has asked me to set my end-date to 5 days after my last official day (as originally determined by the contract) to wrap-up my work.

Now I have two questions:

1. Should I ask them if they are going to pay me for those 5 extra days for which I don't have a contract? Given that they might think it obvious and be insulted by my suggestion that they wouldn't if I ask, what is the best way to ask this?
2. Should I ask them to put my name in the patent as well? If yes, what is a polite way for doing so? Again, I don't want to insult them by asking if they already think it's obvious to do so.

One more thing to consider is that they will almost surely offer me a position after my upcoming graduation, which I might consider accepting. So, there may exist some future cooperation that I want to take into consideration.

Answer 1

Instead of directly asking about the pay (which, yeah, might seem kind of odd to them), ask about the contract: "Happy to stick around another week; how do we go about updating the contract?". Since you came in with a contract, it's reasonable to expect to be governed by one for this extra extension.

As for the patent, that depends on how your employer usually handles those and what (if anything) is in your contract about this. You might be listed as inventor but have to assign all rights to your employer, for example, if your employment was "work for hire". Or the company might share ownership. If you don't know what's normally done at this company, your opening is to ask: "By the way, I know we're filing a patent for (project) -- do I get to be part of that? How does that work?"

In both cases I'm describing an informal conversation with your supervisor. This shouldn't be the only thing that happens (things need to get written down), but it's your opening to the conversation. You're all on good terms, and starting with an informal verbal query fits in well with that.

Answer 2

I suggest asking "What will my pay rate be for the extra days?".

If you are a/the inventor of the method being patented, your name should be on the patent, even if all your rights are being assigned to the employer.

I would expect an inventor assisting in preparing a patent application to be paid at a higher rate than a summer intern. Every time one of my employers filed a patent application for something I was involved in inventing, I received a bonus on top of my salary. However, you may choose to graciously accept continuing at your current rate, to help establish a good working relationship with a potential employer.