영국 직무발명제도에 대한 연구

The U.K. Patent Act, as amended in 1977, was the first to stipulate an employee invention system. The characteristics of the employee invention system are as follows. First, since the system very broadly defines the requirements for employee inventions by dividing them into three types, most of employee inventions completed by employees belong to employers. Second, the system adopts ‘employerism’ with respect to the belonging of rights for employee inventions. Therefore, if the inventions completed by employees is employee inventions, the right to the inventions belongs to employers. On the other hand, the right to the inventions other than inventions recognized as employee inventions belongs to employees. Third, if inventions completed by employees is employee inventions and the right to the inventions belongs to employers, the system gives the right to claim compensation for the employee inventions to employees. And even though the inventions completed by employees is not employee inventions and the right to the inventions belongs to employees, if employees would give employers the right or exclusive license to the inventions, the right to claim additional compensation is granted to employees. Fourth, the system has the requirements of compensation for employee inventions. Therefore, in order for employees to be eligible for compensation for employee inventions, an outstanding profit requirement and justification requirement must be satisfied. In actual litigation, it is difficult for employees to prove the former requirement. Historically, there are only two decisions in which compensation for employee inventions have been calculated; the Kelly decision of the Patent Court in 2009 and the Shanks decision of the Supreme Court in 2019.