Research On The Ownership System Of Employee Invention In China

The legislative models of the employee invention system in various countries can be divided into "Giving Preference to Employee" and "Giving Preference to Employer".China has basically adopted a "Giving Preference to Employer" legislative model,which means that the original rights of employee inventions belong to the employer,and the employer are obliged to pay rewards and remunerations to the employee inventors.In order to meet the requirements of the times for innovation and to comply with the current trends of intensive,large-scale,and industrialized technology research and development,employee inventions occupy an increasingly important position in China’s technological innovation.Therefore,China also needs to establish a more complete employee invention system to protect the road of innovation-driven economic development.This paper is divided into three parts:The first chapter compares the two legislative models of the employee invention ownership system.The "Giving Preference to Employer" legislative model focuses on protecting the legitimate rights and interests of employers in the process of invention,so as to increase the enthusiasm of employers to invest in innovation.The "Giving Preference to Employee" legislative model focuses on protecting the legitimate rights and interests of employees in the process of invention,so as to stimulate employees’ innovative vitality.This legislative model usually gives employees the ownership of employee inventions,and gives employers the right to implement employee inventions.Under the legislative model of "Giving Preference to Employer",the implementation of China’s employee invention system has led to certain problems.First,when the right to the employee invention belongs to the employer,the employer has an advantageous position in management,economy,rights and information.Because of their personal dependence and economic subordination to their employers,employees often tolerate employers encroaching on their legitimate interests.Second,employees are self-interested.When their expected benefits at work are low or the final benefits are not enough to cover their time costs,opportunity costs,intellectual labor costs and other costs,employees tend to slack off work or Favoritism in order to maximize their own interests,resulting in damage to the interests of employers.Third,employees and employers have different needs for the implementation of employee inventions.Employees who need to implement employee inventions are often unable to participate in the process of implementing the results.The second chapter introduces the “Co-ownership by Shares” legislative model,and analyzes the rationality of its application in China,in order to solve the problems caused by the "Giving Preference to Employer" legislative model.First,there are obstacles to introducing a “Giving Preference to Employee” legislative model in China.On the one hand,under this legislative model,the ownership of employee invention is mainly determined by the transfer agreement signed by the employer and the employee before the invention is produced,and the distribution rules only play a supplementary role,and such a social ethos has not yet formed in China.On the other hand,"Giving Preference to Employee" and "Giving Preference to Employer" are two extremes of rights distribution,and do not help to solve the current problems of uneven distribution of employee invention benefits and low implementation rate.Therefore,this paper introduces the “Co-ownership by Shares” legislative model.The legitimacy of the shared ownership of employee inventions by employer and employee can be demonstrated through the property rights labor theory and the economic law of value distribution according to production factors.This legislative model is also reasonable.First,the employer and the employee share the ownership of the employee invention,the benefits obtained from the implementation of employee inventions should be reasonably distributed between the two parties.It can effectively reduce transaction costs and improve economic efficiency.Second,when distributing the economic benefits of employee inventions,the economic benefits have a clear and stable reference—the value of employee inventions,which can break the shackles of the reward system with the nature of personnel management and return to the right track of distribution according to production factors.Third,the “Coownership by Shares” legislative model enables the subjects who need to implement employee inventions to have the legitimate rights to implement them,which can promote the transformation and implementation of invention achievements.The third chapter puts forward suggestions for improving the ownership system of employee inventions in China based on the “Co-ownership by Shares” legislative model.On the one hand,the principle of autonomy of will should be implemented in the employee invention ownership system,and the agreement between employees and employers on the ownership of employee invention rights is more effective than legal provisions.On the other hand,when there is no agreement between the employee and the employer,the ownership of the employee invention belongs to the employee and the employer by share.In addition,the system should also protect the employee’s right of signature and the employee’s and employer’s right to know.Ownership directly determines the distribution of economic benefits of employee inventions.Therefore,this chapter further guides the improvement of the economic benefit distribution system through the ownership system.The system introduces "technology transfer fees" to replace the "rewards" in the current employee invention system.When the ownership of the employee invention is transferred between the employee and the employer,the transferee pays the technology transfer fee to the transferor.The system also introduces "technology conversion fee" to replace the "remuneration" in the current employee invention system.The benefits obtained from the implementation,licensing and assignment of the employee invention by either the employee or the employer shall be distributed between the two parties according to a certain proportion.In addition,the rate agreed between the employee and the employer for the technology conversion fee shall not be lower than the legal minimum standard.The introduction of the “Co-ownership by Shares” legislative model can realize the return to the essence of the ownership of employee inventions.This legislative model will help solve the problems of uneven distribution of benefits related to employee inventions and low conversion and implementation rate of employee inventions,further improve China’s patent system,and promote China’s scientific and technological innovation and economic development.