The Law on Employee Inventions in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom the rights to an invention are usually regulated in the employment contract. The employee must inform his or her employer of all service inventions.

The employer can decide whether a patent should be filed for the invention or not. It does not have to inform his employee of the progress of the registration procedure nor of the decision on foreign applications.

In practice, however, the inventors are often informed so that they can assist the employer in the granting procedure of the patent.  

Employees are only entitled to separate remuneration for the use of their invention in exceptional cases – for particularly important inventions. In practice, this separate compensation is seldom ordered by a court.

Some companies pay a voluntary bonus.