Chapter 13 Employee Inventions and Copyrights

Abstract

Other than in many jurisdictions, inventions and technical improvement proposals made by employees under German law belong to the employee. A “work made for hire” doctrine in principle does not apply. Yet, the employer may claim these rights, but must, however, grant the employee financial compensation. The rules and procedures for this are provided in the Act on Employee Inventions (Arbeitnehmererfindungsgesetz).

Employees’ works that are protected by copyrights or ancillary rights are governed by the Copyright Act (Urheberrechtsgesetz). Deviating from most other jurisdictions, copyrights or ancillary rights cannot be transferred, but remain with the natural person that is the author. Third parties, including employers, may, however, be granted usage and exploitation rights in a very wide scope. The Copyright Act foresees that an employee must even grant such rights to his employer without being entitled to an additional financial remuneration unless agreed differently between the parties. Yet, revocation rights remain with the employee, and also moral rights cannot be excluded in full.

For software, which is also protectable by copyrights, these general rules are modified and the employer is granted usage and exploitation rights to such software created during the employment automatically by virtue of law.