Employee inventions: French patent ownership and compensation

The three categories under Article L. 611-7

Employee invention disputes turn on ownership of the patent and on the inventor's compensation. They set engineers and researchers against their employer, sometimes several years after filing. Dhenne Avocats acts for companies and for inventors alike, before the French National Commission for Employee Inventions and before the Paris Judicial Court.

Article L. 611-7 of the French Intellectual Property Code distinguishes mission inventions, which belong to the employer and give rise to additional compensation, assignable non-mission inventions, which the employer may have assigned to it against a fair price, and non-assignable non-mission inventions, which remain the employee's property.

Classification is the first battleground. It turns on the inventive mission actually entrusted, on the duties genuinely performed rather than the job title, and on the company resources deployed. The classification then governs everything else: ownership of the patent and the nature of the consideration owed.

Additional compensation and fair price

The additional compensation owed for a mission invention is not optional. Its amount is set by the collective agreement, the company agreement or the employment contract, and failing that by the court. The fair price owed for an assignable non-mission invention follows a different logic: it approaches the value of the invention and takes into account each party's initial contribution and the industrial and commercial usefulness of the patent.

In both cases the discussion is as much technical and economic as legal. It requires reconstructing the portfolio, the exploitation, the licences granted and the turnover attached to the covered product.

Researchers, doctoral candidates and hosted personnel

Ordinance no. 2021-1658 of 15 December 2021 extended the devolution mechanism to inventors who are neither employees nor public officials, in particular doctoral candidates and interns hosted by a research body. Research institutions and companies that host such people must now document each inventor's position before filing, failing which ownership of the patent may be disputed.

Before the National Commission and before the court

The National Commission for Employee Inventions offers a fast, low-cost conciliation route. Its proposal becomes binding on the parties if neither refers the matter to the court within the prescribed period. That route is useful where the disagreement is about an amount. It is less so where it concerns ownership, validity of the patent or a claim to entitlement.

The Paris Judicial Court has exclusive jurisdiction over these patent disputes . The starting point of the limitation period is regularly litigated there, particularly where the employee left the company several years earlier. We address that question upstream, before bringing or resisting the claim.

What we do

Auditing employment contracts, collective agreements and invention disclosure procedures.
Classifying inventions and securing filings, working with the patent attorney.
Defending the employer before the National Commission and before the court.
Bringing the inventor's claim for additional compensation or for the fair price.
Entitlement claims and ownership disputes, including in collaborative research settings.

Let's talk about your case.

Ces questions de titularité sont aussi traitées en amont dans notre programme construire un portefeuille de brevets défendable et lors des due diligences en propriété intellectuelle.

Pour approfondir, consultez les entrées du lexique consacrées à la invention declaration, à la additional remuneration, au fair price et à la National Commission for Employee Inventions.