The Duke Law and Technology Review is reporting that a federal circuit court has strictly interpreted 35 U.S.C. §256 in a contentious patent debate involving a student researcher and her advisor (A Victory For the Student Researcher: Chou v. University of Chicago). You can read the ruling here.
Before this ruling, student researchers did not have many rights in the patent realm when their research was used by an advisor and subsequently lead to the issuing of a patent. As a result of this ruling, however, student researchers can now sue their advisors if they are not listed on the patent.