What are you thinking the benefit would be though?
If I produce a patent while working and being paid at a company, who would own it?
The company would get a license to use it forever, but you, or all the RnD team, or all employees at the company at the time would technically own it.
I know this idea has issues, I just like thinking about it sometimes.
I really don't like that companies can buy and sell patents. People come up with ideas and make discoveries, companies don't
Would that be an exclusive license to the company which employs the inventors? Royalty-free too? Then what would be the difference to the company actually owning the patent?
Or would the inventors be free to license their invention to competitors of their employer? Would that be fair, given that their employer paid for the inventors' time, and for a lot of extra effort to turn the patented idea into a marketable product?
In Germany, the "Employee Inventors Act" stipulates that
- the employing company has first right of refusal to claim exclusive ownership of the patent -- in which case they pay the examination fees etc.;
- if they make money from the invention during the term of the patent, they have to pay a royalty to the inventor -- but at a rate which is significantly lower than what an independent inventor would get, taking into account that the inventor was already paid for doing his job;
- if the company decides that they do not want to claim the invention (maybe business plans have changed, or it does not look like such a great technical solution upon second thought), the inventor is free to take it through the patenting process and look for other licensees independently.
Not a bad approach in principle, although implementation has its challenges in the details.
All fair questions.
I was thinking that the company would have the same rights they have now with patents, except that...
- There would be a small fee paid by the company to everyone written on the patient paid every year.
Not a huge amount in most cases, but it would be tied to company profits and split between all people named on the patient.
- The company could never sell the patent, since they never own it.
- The patient is always owned by the people/team who created it, or maybe to keep things simple by all employees of the company at the time of patent creation who've been with the company for more than a 1,2 or 5 year etc..
- If the company was ever sold the new company would take over paying that yearly fee to all the people on the patent.
- If the company ever went under or was dissolved and no one had the license to use that patent any more the patent would become available to use by anyone. They would still have to pay the yearly fee to the people on the patent, but it would be a smaller fee in this case.
- The company can, at any time, decide they don't want the patent any more. They stop paying the yearly fee and it changes to being available to use by anyone, same as above. This means if they want to pay less to use it they can, they just have to let other use it too and then they get the cheaper rate.
- The patent would automatically becomes available to everyone after n years or after n sales of the company, or after n amount of total money has been paid out to the people on the patient.