The Right to Employee Inventions in Patent Law. Debunking the Myth of Incentive Theory
![handle is hein.journals/complv9 and id is 354 raw text is:
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[BOOK REVIEW]
KaZuhide Odaki, The Right to Employee Inventions in Patent Law. Debunking the Myth
of Incentive Theory, Oxford: Hart publishing, 2018, pp. 203.
Elisa Contu
Employee inventions is a subject of great concern, which involves multiple conflicting interests
with strict intertwining of labour law and patent law matters. In particular, the established
principle that employers should enjoy the fruits of labour of their employees seems to clash with
statutory laws, which in almost all countries require employers to pay a compensation to
employee for their inventions, in addition to their salary and benefits. This rule can be interpreted
in different ways, but the most plausible explanation is likely to be found in the 'incentive
theory,' one of the traditional theories on the justification of the patent system. The idea is that
a patent fortifies incentives to invent, to undertake challenging and uncertain activities of
research: as such, it is an instrument for stimulating the creation of inventions and for enabling
'innovation.'
This approach appears particularly consistent with the position of independent workers linked
to the historical image of the 'hero-inventor,' typical of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
and perfectly represented by Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell. They personify the idea
of a lone, individual scientist, who creates inventions thanks to his brilliant talent and who
shoulders the main related risks, including financial risks.
Nowadays, the production system has substantially changed, the cases of inventions made by a
single inventor alone is the exception and the most part is created by teams of scientists and
engineers working in corporations. Inventions are usually the result of the contribution of more
actors with different positions, skills and risks, such as employers, employee inventors,
employees who are not named as inventors but participate in the invention, middle-level
managers, supervisors.
How does the 'incentive theory' work in this background? Do employee inventors need of an
additional compensation to fortify their motivation to invent? Is it a useful and adequate
instrument in order to boost the creation of inventions and also to stimulate innovation?
These are some of the inquiries which Odaki tries to answer, focusing his attention on
inventions made by employees in the course of their normal or specifically assigned duties
during working hours using their employers' resources (p. 7).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/complv9&div=19&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Right to Employee Inventions in Patent Law. Debunking the Myth of Incentive Theory
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