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The Right to Employee Inventions in Patent Law: Debunking the Myth of Incentive Theory

The Right to Employee Inventions in Patent Law: Debunking the Myth of Incentive Theory

Author: Kazuhide Odaki
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781509920310

Published In: October 2018
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Paperback Edition ISBN: 9781509943913

List Price: HKD 1,105.00

HKD 1,071.85 Save HKD 33.15 (3%)

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Description
Contents

Details

Although employers are required to pay compensation for employee inventions under the laws in many countries, existing legal literature has never critically examined whether such compensation actually gives employee inventors an incentive to invent as the legislature intends.

This book addresses the issue through reference to recent (large-scale) surveys on the motivation of employee inventors (in Europe, the United States and Japan) and studies in social psychology and econometrics, arguing that the compensation is unlikely to boost the motivation, productivity and creativity of employee inventors, and thereby encourage the creation of inventions. It also discusses the ownership of inventions made by university researchers, giving due consideration to the need to ensure open science and their academic freedom.

Challenging popular assumptions, this book provides a solution to a critical issue by arguing that compensation for employee inventions should not be made mandatory regardless of jurisdiction because there is no legitimate reason to require employers to pay it. This means that patent law does not need to give employee inventors an ‘incentive to invent’ separately from the ‘incentive to innovate’ which is given to employers.

1. Introduction

I. Background and Purpose of this Book

II. Scope and Contents of the Book

PART I

FINANCIAL INCENTIVES AND THE MOTIVATION, PRODUCTIVITY AND CREATIVITY OF EMPLOYEE INVENTORS

2. Motivation of Employee Inventors and the Effect of Incentives on their Productivity

I. Practice of Compensation to Employee Inventors

II. The Motivation-Hygiene Theory: Criticism and its Usefulness

III. Job Satisfaction and Motivation of Scientists and Engineers

IV. Motivation to Invent: Evidence from PatVal-I/II and RIETI Surveys

V. Financial Incentives and the Productivity of Employee Inventors

3. Inventor Remuneration in the Organisational Context