Kelly v GE Healthcare Ltd (February 11, 2009): Pharmaceutical Companies at Risk of Successful Employee Inventor Compensation Claim Following Landmark Ruling

摘要

The pharmaceutical industry is facing testing times, with many of the major players looking to balance the shortages in their "drug pipelines" and increased costs of development, with the need to cut costs across the board. They now also risk successful compensation claims being brought against them by their own employee inventors.rnUnder s.40 of the Patents Act 1977 (PA 1977), an employee is entitled to a compensation award having made an invention for which a patent is granted where that patent is of "outstanding benefit" to the employer.1 Until now, s.40 has been regarded as a provision that placed an unattainable threshold upon the employee relying on it and therefore of little practical value. This was reflected in the fact that no employee had been successful in being awarded compensation under the section.