Right to a Patent

– The right to a patent shall belong to the inventor or his successor in title.

– The inventor is the person who has made the invention by means of his own creative work.

– Joint inventors shall be entitled to a patent in the proportion in which they have participated in the creation of the invention.

Invention belonging to an enterprise

– Where an inventor has made an invention as part of his tasks deriving from an employment relationship, by reason of the fact that he is a member of an organisation or of any other similar employment relationship (hereinafter referred to as “the employment relationship”), the right to the patent shall pass to the employer, unless otherwise laid down by contract. The right of inventorship as such shall remain unaffected.

– An inventor who has made an invention within the framework of an employment relationship shall be required to report the fact without delay, in writing, to his employer and to communicate to him the documents required for assessing the invention.

– Where the employer does not claim the right to the patent within a period of three months as from receipt of the communication; the right shall revert to the inventor. Both the employer and the employee shall be required to maintain the secrecy of the invention with respect to third parties.

– Any inventor who has made an invention under an employment relationship shall be entitled, where the employer claims the right to the patent, to appropriate remuneration from the employer. In order to assess the amount of remuneration, the technical and economic importance of the invention and the benefit obtained from possible exploitation or other use, together with the material contribution by the employer to the making of the invention and the extent of the inventor’s service obligations shall be taken into consideration. Where remuneration that has already been paid is obviously no longer proportionate to the benefit obtained from exploitation or other subsequent use of the invention, the inventor shall be entitled to additional remuneration.

Termination of the employment relationship between the inventor and the employer shall not prejudice the rights and obligations.