In today’s knowledge-based global economy, most inventions are made by employed persons through their employers’ research and development activities. However, methods of establishing rights over an employee’s intellectual property assets are relatively uncertain in the absence of international solutions. Given that increasingly more businesses establish entities in different countries and more employees co-operate across borders, it becomes essential for companies to be able to establish the conditions under which ownership subsists in intellectual property created in employment relationships in various countries. This comparative law publication describes and analyses employers’ acquisition of employees’ intellectual property rights, first in general and then in depth. This second edition of the book considers thirty-four different jurisdictions worldwide. The book was developed within the framework of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), a non-affiliated, non-profit organization dedicated to improving and promoting the protection of intellectual property at both national and international levels. Among the issues and topics covered by the forty-nine distinguished contributors are the following: • different approaches in different law systems; • choice of law for contracts; • harmonizing international jurisdiction rules; • conditions for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments; • employees’ rights in copyright, semiconductor chips, inventions, designs, plant varieties and utility models on a country-by-country basis; • employee remuneration right; • parties’ duty to inform; and • instances for disputes. With its wealth of information on an increasingly important subject for practitioners in every jurisdiction, this book is sure to be put to constant use by corporate lawyers and in-house counsel everywhere. It is also exceptionally valuable as a thorough resource for academics and researchers interested in the international harmonization of intellectual property law.

This comprehensive Research Handbook explores the rights of employers and employees with regard to intellectual property (IP) created within the framework of the employment relationship. Investigating the development of employee IP from a comparative perspective, it contextualises issues in the light of theoretical approaches in both IP law and labour law. Leading academic experts examine the most crucial building blocks of the regulation of employee IP, such as authorship, inventorship and creatorship, as well as individual, corporate and collective works. Chapters focus on US and European law, but also offer insights from Chinese, Japanese and Korean law. The Research Handbook also tackles new and developing global challenges in the field, including labour mobility, trade secrets, non-compete clauses, university employees, cross-border business matters, and choice of law issues. Scholars and students in both IP and labour law, and particularly those working at the intersection of these fields, will find this Research Handbook invaluable. It will also provide important insights for legislators, business practitioners and university management.

An excellent text for clients to read before meeting with attorneys so they'll understand the fundamentals of patent, copyright, trade secret, trademark, mask work, and unfair competition laws. This is not a "do-it-yourself" manual but rather a ready reference tool for inventors or creators that will generate maximum efficiencies in obtaining, preserving and enforcing their intellectual property rights. It explains why they need to secure the services of IPR attorneys. Coverage includes employment contracts, including the ability of engineers to take confidential and secret knowledge to a new job, shop rights and information to help an entrepreneur establish a non-conflicting enterprise when leaving their prior employment. Sample forms of contracts, contract clauses, and points to consider before signing employment agreements are included. Coverage of copyright, software protection, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as well as the procedural variances in international intellectual property laws and procedures.

Skilled workers of the early nineteenth century enjoyed a degree of professional independence because workplace knowledge and technical skill were their "property," or at least their attribute. In most sectors of today's economy, however, it is a foundational and widely accepted truth that businesses retain legal ownership of employee-generated intellectual property. In Working Knowledge, Catherine Fisk chronicles the legal and social transformations that led to the transfer of ownership of employee innovation from labor to management. This deeply contested development was won at the expense of workers' entrepreneurial independence and ultimately, Fisk argues, economic democracy. By reviewing judicial decisions and legal scholarship on all aspects of employee-generated intellectual property and combing the archives of major nineteenth-century intellectual property-producing companies--including DuPont, Rand McNally, and the American Tobacco Company--Fisk makes a highly technical area of law accessible to general readers while also addressing scholarly deficiencies in the histories of labor, intellectual property, and the business of technology.

This book provides a full and clear exposition of the fundamentals of intellectual property law in the UK. It combines excerpts from cases and a broad range of secondary works with insightful commentary from the authors which will situate the law within a wider international context.

A comprehensive overview of intellectual property law, this handbook will be a vital read for all invested in the field of IP law. Topics include the foundations of IP law; its emergence and development in various jurisdictions; its rules and principles; and current issues arising from the existence and operation of IP law in a political economy.

This collection includes twenty-four articles published over a period that spans almost seventy years and is related to the law in three jurisdictions. The volume is divided into five parts and brings together influential and significant scholarly work in this exciting field. The material examines various themes that arise at the points at which employment and intellectual property laws converge: historical perspectives on employee inventions; rationales for default rules; allocation of ownership of employee creation; restraints and employee mobility and discusses university approaches and issues. With an original introduction by the editor, this timely collection will be a valuable source of reference for students, academics and practitioners interested in employment and intellectual property law.