The Allocation of Intellectual Property Rights Between Employers and Employees in the United Kingdom

The subject of this thesis is the allocation of intellectual property rights between employers and employees: a legal, a social, a psychological and an economic phenomenon. Chapter 4 sets out the basic methodological framework adopted in this thesis and explains what is intellectual property. Chapter 5 examines the economic problems attached to the creation and exploitation of intellectual property rights. Chapter 6 examines the subject of industrial relations and explains why employee creators do not obtain adequate protection for themselves through the medium of collective bargaining. Chapter 7 examines the psychological nature of inventing. Chapter 8 looks at the nature of awards given to employee creators by their employers; the theoretical and practical 1 basis for the making of awards to inventors is also discussed, and objections to the establishment of a statutory award scheme evaluated. Chapter 9 introduces the layman to the law of contract, the doctrine of restraint of trade, and the employee's difficulty in altering the terms of a standard employment contract. Chapter 10 is a study of the allocation of patent rights between inventors and their employers. British law is contrasted with the American law, which provides an alternative measure for protecting patent rights. Chapter 11 looks at the laws relating to confidential information. Chapter 14 explains the different problems faced by English and American Courts when allocating rights in industrial designs. Chapter 16 explores the allocation of moral rights to employers and employees, contrasting the Anglo-American tradition with that of the European civil law. Chapter 17 seeks to evaluate the remedies provided by equity as a potential means of rewarding or compensating an employee for work done outside his contract of employment. Chapter 18 examines current proposals for law reform.