| Establishing the rights to inventions can be a tricky business. Hanna Paloheimo
of Borenius & Kemppinen negotiates Finland’s legislative take on diverse contractual relations
As the value of inventions is extremely high in the pharmaceutical sector,
particularly close attention should be paid to the proper transfer of rights and diligent
management of inventor relations. This article discusses Finnish legislation on
employee inventions, the recent changes concerning university inventions and the
management of inventions and inventor relations in outsourcing research in Finland.
EMPLOYEE INVENTIONS
Main Rule Regarding Inventions
The basic issue relating to inventions that originate within
employment occurs when the company of employment desires
the possession of the invention, either for its own use or for the
purposes of transferring it to a contractual partner. In Finland,
certain crucial pieces of mandatory legislation regulate this field.
Employee inventions are regulated by the Act on the Right in
Employee Inventions (656/1967, hereafter the Employee
Inventions Act). More detailed provisions are set out in the
Decree on the Right to Employee’s Inventions (527/1988). The
main principle of invention ownership is provided by Section 3
of the Employee Inventions Act, which states that an employee
shall have the same rights in his/her inventions as other
inventors, unless otherwise provided by a piece of legislation.
This means that, primarily, the employee owns all rights to an
invention made by him or her; a specific procedure and
assignment of these rights is required to render the invention the
property of the employer. |
