Patent Modernization Act Passes the German Parliament

The most important amendment concerns the Employees Inventor’s Act and is that in the future, the employer’s claim for a service invention no longer needs to be declared to the employee. Rather, the amendment provides that the employer automatically claims the invention unless he/she does not waive his/her claim to the benefit of the employee within a period of four months by means of a written declaration. Furthermore, according to an amendment of the Patent Act, the patent nullity action to be filed with the German Federal Patent Court in the first instance and the appeal proceedings before the German Federal Supreme Court shall be streamlined. The new law is not yet in force.