IP Rights for Employee Inventors

The US Supreme Court ruling in Dr. Bayer v Plurality Ltd allowed the appeal of an employee who signed an agreement that provided for the employee’s waiver of his right to remuneration for service inventions, holding that notwithstanding such express contractual waiver, the employee is entitled to submit a claim to the Compensation and Royalties Committee under the Patents Law to determine the employee’s entitlement to remuneration. Although the Plurality judgment does not rule that an agreement containing a waiver of remuneration is invalid, the Reinhold Cohn Group reports in its recent newsletter that the judgement leaves open the possibility — already raised in the Actelis matter, cited with approval by the Supreme Court — for such a ruling of invalidity in the future. The emerging judicial approach to an employee’s right to remuneration, while not yet