• Sir Rupert Jackson finds that mediation as the principal method of ADR should be at the heart of every litigator’s toolkit.
• Increasing risk of Employee Patent Compensation claims
• Community consultation goes electronic
• icele recognises Community Consultation Dashboard
• Innovative Lawyer
• Mediation hope for small disputes
• The Power of Mediation
• Mediation that provides happy endings for free
• Even obstinate parties should mediate early!
• Can't we just talk this over

Employee Patent Compensation

Having followed with interest the case of Shanks v Unilever PLC & others which was reported last Thursday, I believe this will have a profound impact on the provision companies must make for employee patent compensation.

This is the second case this year successfully brought by employees under the Patents Act 1977 which could lead to a deluge of such cases but certainly must lead to employers concentrating on the commercial impact such public cases will have on the research and development function within their businesses.

Any company that is engaged in research, development or innovation needs to think about setting up an Employee Patent Compensation scheme, both to incentives innovation and to protect the company as far as possible from unexpected claims for employee patent compensation. The risks of not tackling this from the outset must surely outweigh the costs associated with such a scheme. The benefits of a well-structured scheme accrue through more employee interest in innovation and better retention.

Any company requiring the best minds and most innovative employees needs to demonstrate that it is encourages and values innovation and employees who innovate - just saying " we are an innovative company" may no longer be enough. Anyway, there will now be an slowly increasing flow of cases of employees claiming an award of compensation in the courts, where the employees have invented something from which their employer derives an "outstanding benefit".

ResoLex has thus launched two new services to specifically help clients manage this growing risk, firstly the Employee Patent Compensation scheme which helps a company set up a practical methodology for calculating any compensation, or reward.

The second is a specialist mediation scheme for resolving any cases which arise from work carried out prior to an Employee Invention Compensation scheme being in place. For further information please view the Employee Patent Compensation pages.