Shanghai Court Issues Guidelines on Remuneration for Service Inventions

The Shanghai Higher People’s Court Intellectual Property Tribunal, an intellectual property appellate court, recently published the Guidelines on the Adjudication of Disputes Involving Rewards and Remuneration for Inventors or Designers of Service Invention Creations (“Guidelines”) to assist Shanghai’s lower courts to resolve disputes involving claims for rewards or remuneration by inventors or designers of service inventions. Despite the revisions to the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China and its implementing rules in recent years, it has proved difficult for the lower courts to balance the interests of employers and employees in this area. The Guidelines apply only to service inventions created in mainland China, but they permit inventors and designers to claim rewards or remuneration from their employers wherever the company applies for a patent, i.e. in China or abroad. The Guidelines limit an inventor or designer’s right to make a claim where the invention is commissioned by or created in collaboration with a third party and the inventor or designer is not employed by such third party.  More…