Arbitration Board under the Law on Employees' Inventions

mediates disputes on the reasonable compensation for employee inventions

The Arbitration Board under the Law on Employees' Inventions deals with disputes between an employee who has made an invention within the scope of his employment and his employer. The subject of arbitration proceedings is, above all, to fix reasonable compensation for the employee, if the employer has filed a patent or utility model application for the employee's invention and exploits the invention.

In many cases, the parties to a dispute on compensation for the inventor must appeal to the Arbitration Board before bringing the case before the court. The Board submits settlement proposals to the parties. The parties may accept them as binding, but they may also object to the proposals or conclude a settlement outside the office.

The Arbitration Board consists of a three-member panel: a legal expert, who is the chairman, and two DPMA patent examiners specialised in the relevant technological field.

© 2013 Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt | Last updated 13/05/13