Arbitration board according to the law on employee inventions
The arbitration board under the law on employee inventions (sometimes also referred to as "arbitration board for employee invention law" or "employee invention arbitration board") is an arbitration board set up at the German Patent and Trademark Office ("DPMA"), with and before employers and employees can try to amicably resolve an employee invention dispute that has arisen between them.
Legal basis, overview
The arbitration board was created by Sections 28 to 30 of the Employee Invention Act (ArbNErfG).
The arbitration board is exclusively responsible for employee invention disputes between employer and employee. The substantive legal norms that are mainly important for the work of the arbitration board are the Employee Invention Act, the remuneration guidelines linked to it , the Patent Act and general civil law. For the rules of procedure, reference is also made to the code of civil procedure . One purpose of the establishment of the arbitration board is to create a quick, inexpensive and for the relationship between employer and employee, which is supposed to continue a priori in spite of the dispute under employee invention law, a quick, cost-effective dispute settlement procedure as little burdensome as possible. The proceedings before the arbitration board are not public. The arbitration board does not make a binding decision on the parties, but wants to induce the parties to conclude a dispute-settling agreement against the background of applicable law and their experience. The majority of the cases at the arbitration board concern the determination of employee inventor remuneration and the transfer of rights from the inventor to the employer.
Occupation, procedure
The arbitration board handles a case in a three-party committee. The chairman should be a lawyer. Two assessors are examiners of the DPMA who are responsible for the technical field of the invention in question. The committee decide by majority vote.
A party can call the arbitration board in writing, but otherwise informally. In her letter she must state the main circumstances. The arbitration board will send the letter to the other party and request the other party to submit a statement. In this way, a written procedure is created in which briefs are alternately submitted with supporting material, if necessary. If the arbitration board considers the case to be ready for a decision, it will submit a settlement proposal to the parties, which it has worked out and agreed internally in view of the presentations. An oral hearing will only take place in special cases.
The proposal and the reasons for it will be sent to the parties. It is deemed accepted if neither party objects to it within one month. It is then a contract between the parties. Otherwise the experience is ended without success.
The procedure is not public. The draft agreement will not be published either. However, the arbitration board publishes guiding principles from its settlement proposals, on the basis of which the ruling practice can be identified.
The (patent) legal representation of a party is not necessary.
costs
The arbitration board does not charge any costs or expenses for its appeal and work. Regardless of the outcome of the proceedings, each party bears its own costs.
meaning
Although the arbitration board cannot make binding decisions or judgments, its work is of great factual importance . Since she is the only such position in the FRG, she has great experience in the subject. Since it works out a settlement proposal in a specific dispute and sends it to the parties, the parties are aware of the opinion of the arbitration board. If the arbitration board's proposal is not accepted by the parties and a conventional civil law dispute ensues, an interested party can submit the arbitration board's settlement proposal to the court as an expert opinion. Because of the expertise of the arbitration board, a court will pay attention, if not attach great importance to such (not accepted) proposal from the arbitration board.
In the legal sense, the procedure before the arbitration board is important insofar as civil law actions are only admissible in an existing employment relationship if the arbitration board has been called upon.
Web links
- To the arbitration board according to the law on employee inventions on the website of the DPMA
- Text of the Employee Invention Act
- Information sheet of the DPMA "Information on the procedure before the arbitration board according to the law on employee inventions"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Compensation guidelines
- ↑ § 33 ArbNErfG
- ↑ Principles from the proposals of the arbitration board
- ↑ § 37 ArbNErfG
