On 16 November 2020 the government enacted Order 1848, which approves a new version of the rules on remuneration for employees' inventions, utility models and industrial designs.
The new rules replace those that were approved in 2014 and increase the amount of remuneration that must be paid annually to inventors:
- annual payments for inventions are now three times the amount provided for under the previous rules; and
- annual payments for designs and utility models are now two times the amount provided for under the previous rules.
The amount of remuneration that must be paid to employee inventors is as follows.
|
Grounds for remuneration |
Amount of remuneration |
Terms of payment |
|
Creation of inventions, utility models or industrial designs |
For inventions, the amount of remuneration must be 30% of the employee's average monthly wage over the previous 12 months. For models or designs, the amount of remuneration must be 20% of the employee's average monthly wage over the previous 12 months. |
Payment must be made within two months of the patent grant or the employer's decision to keep the information secret. If the patent was not granted because of circumstances under the employer's control, payment must be made within 18 months of the filing date. |
|
Employers' use of employees' inventions |
The remuneration must be three times the employee's average monthly wage over the previous 12 months during which the invention has been used. |
Payment must be made after the expiration of each 12-month period that the invention remains in use. |
|
Employers' use of employees' utility models or designs |
The remuneration must be two times the employee's average monthly wage over the previous 12 months during which the model or design has been used. |
Payment must be made after the expiration of each 12-month period that the model or design remains in use. |
|
Licence agreements regarding employees' inventions, models or designs |
The remuneration must be 10% of the employer's licence fee. |
Payment must be made within one month of the date that the employer received the licence fee. The remuneration must be distributed equally between co-authors unless a separate co-author agreement provides otherwise. |
|
Assignment of rights for employees' inventions, models or designs |
The remuneration must be 15% of the employer's assignment fee. |
Payment must be made within one month of the date that the employer received the assignment fee. The remuneration must be distributed equally between co-authors unless a separate co-author agreement provides otherwise. |
Rights holders should always have an agreement with employee inventors, or a relevant clause in employee agreements. Such agreements will supersede the default rules.
Agreements should contain no provisions that are completely incompatible with the default rules, such as the complete absence of payments, as the courts may not enforce these clauses. However, employers may wish to change periodical payments to a lump-sum payment, for example.
