Instructions for completing the invention declaration

Please consider protecting your invention through industrial property rights and exploring potential commercialisation options as early as possible; in addition to industrial partners, this could include, for example, commercialising the invention by setting up your own business. The longer you wait to submit the invention disclosure, the greater the risk that others will beat you to it. Do not disclose your invention to the public at any time, whether verbally, in writing or through use. The TUGZ or the Patent Information Centre at OVGU will be happy to advise you on any related questions at any time.

If this is the first time you are submitting an invention disclosure at OVGU, we recommend that you read the instructions for completion documented here (see also the article "Guide to Invention Disclosure") carefully. Experienced inventors will no longer need these instructions. You will probably complain about the seemingly excessive bureaucracy at the Transfer and Start-Up Center when submitting an invention disclosure for the first time. However, the purpose of filing an invention disclosure is not a meaningless collection of data, but rather to establish (legal) certainty for your ideas: a simple way to bring down an otherwise brilliant invention would be a lawsuit by a competitor due to avoidable formal errors in the claim or registration of your invention. The critical details in the form, which will necessarily form the basis for an industrial property right, must therefore be complete and accurate. We have no discretion here, nor can we ‘turn a blind eye’, as ultimately your and our efforts and the costs of registration, enforcement and maintenance of the industrial property right might all have been in vain.

All matters relating to inventions made by employees are primarily governed by the Employee Inventions Act (ArbErfG); patents are covered by the Patents Act (PatG) and utility models by the Utility Models Act (GbmG). In printed form, the concise ArbErfG fits onto just eight sheets of paper. To ensure that differing interpretations and special situations can be adequately assessed, the evaluation draws not only on the succinct text of the Act, but in particular on commentaries on the Act and case law. These commentaries describe how the Act is to be understood and interpreted in detail. The standard commentary most frequently used by the TUGZ, ‘Bartenbach/Volz’ (6th edition, 2019), comprises 2,436 pages on which these detailed interpretations of the Employee Inventions Act are comprehensively documented. This level of detail is not initially important for you as an inventor; however, you should be confident that the processes at TUGZ are not based solely on the concise text of the ArbErfG. The University Library has copies of the standard commentaries available for reference.

Under the ArbErfG, Otto von Guericke University is, in principle, entitled to inventions created by its employees during the term of their employment. In return, the employee is entitled to appropriate, compensatory remuneration for these service inventions. From the reporting of an invention through to the question of whether and how the University intends to exploit, release or abandon an invention, various scenarios arise which cannot be fully outlined here.

We would like to point out that a breach of the obligation to report an invention, even if not expressly mentioned in the employment contract or in collective agreements, generally gives rise to a claim for damages by the employer against the employee and may have consequences under employment law.

There is extensive commentary on employee inventions. In legal matters, many special circumstances, framework conditions and specific points are relevant. The TUGZ@OVGU therefore accepts no liability for the completeness and accuracy of these instructions, nor for any decisions made on the basis of this brief summary.

Should you have any further questions, the team at the Transfer and Start-Up Center, Transfer and Intellectual Property Rights Department (contact: Mr Martin Krause; email: martin1.krause@ovgu.de; tel.: 0391 67-52091), will be more than happy to assist you.