The SIPO is coming up with the Draft of Service Invention Regulation aiming for protecting the right of a service inventor for claiming reward when the application is filed and remunerations when an application is patent granted and/or practiced from which the applicant obtains benefit.

BACKGROUND
Both the Patent Law and Implementing Regulations of Patent Law prescribe the general principles and goals of service invention, but fail to provide operative proceedings to achieve the goals, e.g., it is unclear how an inventor can exercise the rights of authorship, obtain the reward, and remunerations.
In practice, without operative proceedings, the above rights of service inventor are likely to be ignored and harmed, causing disincentive effects.

GOALS

In order to encourage invention, balance the duty and right of a service inventor, and ensure the lowest guarantee of a service inventor while keeping the signed agreement with the employer, the upcoming Service Invention Regulation prescribes in detail the way to protect the rights of a service inventor, e.g., stipulating the lowest guarantee for reward and remunerations and inventor’s right to know.

DISCUSSION & SEMINAR

Our clients are interested in this service invention regulation and keeping close watch of the progress, as the final outcome will influence largely a company’s policy and agreement to be reached between the inventor and the employer regarding a service invention.
We are discussing the draft of this regulation with the senior examiners of SIPO and the judges of the people’s court, trying to figure out how the SIPO and the people’s court interpret and apply the regulation requirements.
We are arranging a seminar on this topic, for which we will invite experts from the SIPO and the people’s court to discuss this draft of regulation. This seminar will be open to our clients.