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Nov 27, 2018 · The Patent Act is silent as to ownership of a patent in an employment context, and so one must look to the common law. Generally, it is presumed the employee will have ownership of his or her invention and any resulting patent for discoveries made during the course of employment.[7] This presumption holds true even where the employee’s ...
There is the issue of figuring out, as employee inventors, who owns the patent rights and whether your employer can claim ownership. Through my years of dealing with and researching areas including intellectual property, assigned ownership, assignment agreement topics, patent application, patent protection, patent infringement, and potential legal disputes, I have uncovered several angles to ...
- Copyright
- Patents
- Industrial Designs
- Conclusion
- References
While copyright is often mistakenly perceived as being limited to “artistic” works, such as paintings, music and film, copyright protection can extend to a much broader scope of works which can be extremely valuable for businesses, including logos, catalogs, software source code, the content of websites, graphic user interfaces, architectural works...
Unlike the Copyright Act, the Patent Actdoes not include specific provisions addressing the ownership of patent rights in inventions made during the course of employment. The applicable principles were therefore developed by the courts and the general rule is essentially the opposite of that applicable to copyright. The employee will, as a general ...
Much like the Copyright Act, Section 12(1) of the Industrial Design Act provides that the first owner of a design is its author, unless the design was executed for another person in exchange for good and valuable consideration, in which case that person becomes the first owner. It should be noted that unlike the Copyright Act, the Industrial Design...
Considering that the rules vary greatly depending on the type of intellectual property right involved, the fact that the tests are often imprecise and can give rise to protracted debates (e.g.,What does “hired to invent” mean exactly? Where does the course of employment begin and end?) and that in some fields the same employees can create different...
1. Comstock Canada v Elected Ltd, [1991] FCJ No 987. The preceding is intended as a timely update on Canadian intellectual property and technology law. The content is informational only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. To obtain such advice, please communicate with our offices directly.
• It can be proven that the employee was employed for the express purpose of inventing or innovating. In these cases, the employer is deemed to own the invention and resulting patent rights. Senior employees who may have a duty of good faith toward the employer are not prevented from claiming ownership
The provincial courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the federal court to determine cases where a remedy is sought at common law or in equity regarding the ownership of any patent of invention. 12 The common law rule in Canada is that the mere existence of an employment relationship does not disqualify employees from patenting inventions made during the course of their employment.
While the Patent Act does not address ownership rights of intellectual property created during employment, the general rule is that (unlike with patents), employees will have ownership of inventions and any resulting patents for discoveries made during the course of their employment. However, there are two important exceptions where ownership over patent rights in an invention belongs to an ...
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Jul 7, 2021 · The Patent Act contains no express provisions pertaining to the ownership of inventions produced by an employee during the course of their employment. However, common law jurisprudence indicates that employees are generally presumed to own patent rights in these circumstances.