Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office (the “SIPO”), joined the other 12 governmental agencies to release the “Several Opinions on Further Strengthening the Protection of Service Inventor’s Rights and Interests and Promoting IP Implementation (hereinafter as the “Opinions”), demanding strong protection of the legitimate rights of employee inventors.
The Opinions enhance the rewards and remunerations of service inventors. According to the Opinions, where there is no agreement or internal regulations and where the state-owned entities implement the invention themselves, remuneration shall be given to the inventor at a ratio of no less than 3% of the business profit from the implementation of the invention patent. As to the licensing or transfer of the patent, remuneration for all inventors should be no less than 20% of the transfer fee or the license fee.
The Opinions also require that State-owned enterprises should set up invention reporting system and management system so that the rights, obligations and responsibilities between enterprises and inventors can be determined, and the ownership of inventions can be decided.
