Patents Act 1994 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 9 · Employees’ Inventions
49. Right to employees’ inventions
Feedback & supportDespite anything in any rule of law, an invention made by an employee, as between the employee and the employee’s employer, is taken to belong to the employee’s employer for the purposes of this Act and all other purposes if —
employee
“employee” means a person who works or (where the employment has ceased) worked under a contract of employment or in employment under or for the purposes of a Government department;
the invention was made in the course of the normal duties of the employee or in the course of duties falling outside the employee’s normal duties, but specifically assigned to the employee, and the circumstances in either case were such that an invention might reasonably be expected to result from the carrying out of the employee’s duties; or
the invention was made in the course of the duties of the employee and, at the time of making the invention, because of the nature of the employee’s duties and the particular responsibilities arising from the nature of the employee’s duties the employee had a special obligation to further the interests of the employer’s undertaking.
Any other invention made by an employee, as between the employee and his or her employer, is taken for those purposes to belong to the employee.
employer
“employer”, in relation to an employee, means the person by whom the employee is or was employed;
Where by virtue of this section an invention belongs, as between the employee and his or her employer, to an employee, nothing done —
by or on behalf of the employee or any person claiming under the employee for the purposes of pursuing an application for a patent; or
by any person for the purpose of performing or working the invention,is to be taken to infringe any copyright or design right to which, as between the employee and his or her employer, his or her employer is entitled in any model or document relating to the invention.
In subsection (3), the reference to application for a patent includes an application for other protection for an invention, and includes an application for a patent or any other protection under the law of a country other than Singapore or under any treaty to which Singapore is a party.
patent
“patent” means a patent under this Act and includes a patent in force by virtue of section 117(3);