Introduction
In a landmark ruling in October, the UK Supreme Court overturned
the decisions of three lower tribunals and courts, and awarded an
inventor (Professor Ian Shanks) compensation of £2 million
from his employer (Unilever) in relation to a patent protecting
diabetic sensors. In making this award, the Supreme Court has swept
away a perceived rule that some employers are simply "too big
to pay" inventor compensation under the UK's statutory
compensation provisions. We provide an analysis of the case
below.
The law
The starting point under English law is that the legal rights in
inventions created by employees in the course of their normal
duties belong to their employer, provided an invention might
reasonably be expected to result from the employee carrying out
their normal duties. Under section 40 of the Patents Act 1977,
however, an employee inventor can apply for compensation where the
patent (or, for patents applied for after 1 January 2005,
