공동발명자 결정방법 및 공동발명자간 공헌도 산정방법

Abstract

A company must pay better-than-before attention on managing joint inventions because the number of joint inventions increases and the value of them are normally higher than that of single inventions. This article proposes a new method to calculate contribution rates among joint inventors. To so do, firstly it defines joint inventors as those who substantially contribute in establishing distinctive elements of an invention. A person who contributed for an element derived from prior art may not be considered as an inventor. Secondly, this article analyzes most cases that dealt with joint inventorship, after so doing, it concludes that the cases suggest only somewhat vague criteria to determine joint inventorship, such as "substantial cooperation" and "concrete concept" rather than suggesting more objective criteria. As a more objective method to calculate the contribution rates among joint inventors, this article suggests, (1) to classify elements of a claim into prior art ones and distinctive ones, (2) to determine value of each distinctive element, (3) to determine contribution rate of each joint inventor for each distinctive element, (4) to calculate contribution rates among joint inventors for the claim, and (5) to calculate overall contribution rates by adding contribution rate for each claim. This method may make contribution rate calculation more reasonable and may reduce cases of misjoinder or nonjoinder. To make upper-suggested method more effective, a following research may (1) suggest a way to determine value of each distinctive element of a claim and (2) provide a scheme to consider those who does not directly contribute for the creation of the invention, but still indirectly contributes for it.