PATENT LAW:
New Rules for German Professors
Christian Kilger and Kurt Bartenbach
In Germany, the "Inventor's Law" has, in the past, granted German university professors an exemption from the standard legal obligation, known throughout industry, of notifying the employer of an invention. The inventor-professor was at the same time the sole beneficiary of any and all financial income achieved by the commercialization of the invention. It was frequently argued that, in essence, this old legislation was denying the German universities and, thereby, the German economy an economically valuable intangible asset. Thus, legislation has very recently abolished the so-called "professor's privilege," with great financial and political consequences.
C. Kilger is with ipal GmbH, Bundesalle 210, 10719 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: kilger{at}ipal.de. K. Bartenbach is with C B H Attorneys, Bismarckstrasse 11-13, 50672 Cologne, Germany. E-mail: k.bartenbach{at}cbh.de
