France has introduced two new articles in its intellectual property code that came into force with effect from December 2021.
These new orders will provide for the automatic devolution of economic rights of intellectual property of a software and their documentation and on inventions from a non-employed (not company employees or civil servants) inventor to a host legal person. These articles will bring about favorable changes towards employers.
French law defines three categories of employer inventions -
1. Mission inventions – these inventions are those made by an employee under a formal employment contract containing an inventive mission, such inventions made belong to the employer.
2. Non mission inventions – these inventions are those made outside of an employment contract by an employee, outside of any tasks explicitly trusted to said employee.
3. Attributable non-mission inventions are those inventions made by an employee who has to specific inventive mission assignment. The employer has the right to these inventions under specific conditions and time limits.
Previously, according to a caselaw an intern would gain ownership of the IP right when the intern would be welcomed by the host lab for instance. This former case law has been overturned by the December ordinance. The order seeks to extend the rule on patentable inventions created by public or state sector employees to other categories of inventors which include interns, students, scholarship students, PhD students i.e., those who have been working in a company or a public institute carrying out research as host institutions.
The new order states that the host institutions owns the inventions or software created in the context of regular activities on the basis of explicit instruction by the host.
The provisions also deal with inventions not arising from regular activities that have been assigned to the inventor.
The provisions will apply provided the inventor is bound to the host institution by an agreement and gets compensation for the work carried out under explicit instruction (regards to software).
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