Legal rights of employees’ inventions
When an employee comes up with an invention, he does not necessarily own its legal rights. This blog will underline the legal rights of employees’ inventions.
Different types of inventions
The Swiss federal law considers three different types of inventions; the contractual invention, inventions on the job and the free invention. Depending on the type of invention, the employee has different rights.
Contractual invention
This occurs when employees come up with an invention during their work and in fulfilment of their contractual duties. In this case, the employer owns the legal rights of the invention and is not required to pay any form of compensation. However, the employee has the right to be named as official inventor.
Invention on the job
This occurs when an employee comes up with an invention during his work, but not in fulfilment of his contractual duties. In this case, the employee owns all the legal rights to his invention. However, the contract of employment may include a regulation regarding these types of inventions. In this case, the employer can trade the invention in return for a bonus, if the invention seriously competes with the company’s operations.
Free invention
Here the employee owns all the rights to his invention. This is the case when an employee comes up with an invention outside of his working hours and not in fulfilment of his contractual duties.
