Employee inventions: French patent ownership and compensation
Employee invention disputes turn on ownership of the patent and the inventor’s remuneration. 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.
The three categories of Article L. 611-7
The article L. 611-7 of the Intellectual Property Code distinguishes between mission inventions, which belong to the employer and give rise to additional remuneration, attributable non-mission inventions, which the employer may have assigned to it against a fair price, and non-attributable non-mission inventions, which remain the employee’s property.
Characterisation is the first battleground. It turns on the inventive mission actually entrusted, on the real duties rather than the job title, and on the company’s resources used. The category adopted then governs everything else: ownership of the title and the nature of the consideration due.
Additional compensation and fair price
The additional remuneration due 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 due for an attributable non-mission invention follows a different logic: it approaches the value of the invention and takes account of each party’s initial contribution and of the industrial and commercial utility of the title.
In both cases the discussion is as technical and economic as it is legal. It requires reconstructing the portfolio, the exploitation, the licences granted and the turnover attached to the product covered.
Researchers, doctoral candidates and hosted personnel
Ordinance No 2021-1658 of 15 December 2021 extended the vesting mechanism to inventors who are neither employees nor public servants, in particular doctoral students and interns hosted by a research organisation. Research institutions and companies that receive them must now document each inventor’s position before filing, failing which ownership of the title may be disputed.
Before the National Commission and before the court
The National Commission on Employee Inventions offers a quick and inexpensive conciliation route. Its proposal binds the parties if neither applies to the court within the prescribed period. That route is useful where the disagreement concerns an amount. It is less so where it concerns ownership, the validity of the title or a claim to ownership.
The Paris Judicial Court has exclusive jurisdiction over these patent disputes exclusively. The starting point of the limitation period is regularly debated there, in particular where the employee left the company several years earlier. We deal with that question at the outset, before bringing or contesting the action.
How we act
- 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.
- The inventor’s action for payment of additional remuneration or of the fair price.
- Entitlement claims and ownership disputes, including in collaborative research settings.
These ownership questions are also addressed upstream in our programme building a defensible patent portfolio and in intellectual property due diligence reviews.
To go further, see the glossary entries on invention declaration, on additional remuneration, on the fair price and on National Commission for Employee Inventions.
A few matters that illustrate our practice
Industry: remuneration of employee inventions
Assisting a manufacturer in a dispute over additional remuneration for employee inventions. Analysis of the inventions, the documents and limitation, preparation of submissions before the National Commission on Employee Inventions and of court pleadings.
Research: ownership and employee inventions
Advice on the ownership of inventions developed in a research setting. Analysis of the employee inventions regime, confidentiality undertakings and disclosure formalities with the organisations concerned.
Analyses and publications to go further
- Employee inventions: the consideration due to the inventor , analysis by the firm.
- Employee inventions: identification and classification , analysis by the firm.
- Droit des brevets (patent law treatise), LexisNexis, 2024.
Frequently asked questions
What determines the attribution of an employee invention?
On the applicable regime and the category of the invention, determined by reference to the duties and the circumstances in which it was made. Contracts and research records are essential.
Are additional remuneration and the fair price the same thing?
They correspond to different situations. The characterisation of the invention precedes the analysis of the consideration due.
Which documents should be kept?
Contracts, assignments, invention disclosures, correspondence, collective agreements and evidence of exploitation. They make it possible to reconstruct the chronology and each party’s rights.