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EMPLOYEE INVENTION LAW
According to patent law, an inventor has the right to a patent for his or her invention. The law relating to employee inventions details how the rights to the employee invention are passed on to the employer.
Inventions become so called “service inventions” when they come from the employee’s incumbent area of activity within an enterprise or are significantly based on experience gained from or the work done at the workplace.
It is the employee’s responsibility to separately give the employer written notice of a service invention as soon as it has been completed. The employer then has 4 months to give the employee a written explaination if he or she does not want to make use of, claim or take responsibility for the invention. Prior to October 1, 2009, the employer had to explicitly and formally take over the invention, or else it became a free invention.
If the employer claims the invention, the rights to the invention are also transferred over to him or her. It is, however, the employer’s responsibility to apply for a patent or, if it is more cost-effective and suitable, a utility model for the invention. The employer must pay a reasonable compensation for the use of the invention.
After information about an employee invention, the responsable person in the company should do the following three things: confirm that notice has been recieved, note the four-month deadline and check that the notice contains all of the pertinant information. This would be: what do the known solutions look like? What disadvantages are there? An applicable example: what makes the invention so new and different? What are its greatest hallmarks? How was it invented? Who had given the inventor the task? Had previous work already been done in the process? Are there other people involved other than the inventor?
We are happy to take care of all necessary actions and duties in order to ensure that our clients conform with employee invention law. Here are some examples of what those could be:
- the inventor/s releasing the invention
- confirmation from the inventor/s regarding the claim
- clarification of which people are involved with what parts of the invention
- corresponding with the inventor/s and preparing patent application documents
- calculation and payment of the inventor’s remuneration
- release of the invention abroad, including conditional joint-use rights when necessaery
- providing property rights for its use, including conditional joint-use rights when necessary
After the invention has been claimed, agreements can be made with the inventor/s in order to make it easier to use and follow the rules and regulations. We can gladly advise you personally about these issues, so that your rights can be secured with the least amount of time and trouble.
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