中国职务发明纠纷多元解决机制探究

中国职务发明数量的增长以及职务发明纠纷的增加引起了各界的广泛关注,如何构建有效的纠纷解决机制成为了一个十分重要的议题.通过分析以德国和法国为代表的大陆法系国家以及以美国和英国为代表的英美法系国家的相关纠纷解决机制,并将其与中国当前实践进行比较,(本文认为)有效的纠纷解决机制应致力于两方面努力.一方面,在设有知识产权法院的城市设立解决职务发明纠纷的专门委员会来专门处理职务发明纠纷.另一方面,在实体和程序上协同调解、仲裁及诉讼程序,从而使这些机制能够共同实现职务发明纠纷的有效解决.在参照《专利法》第四次修改内容和《专利纠纷行政调解指南》的基础上,将中国实践中的各种职务发明纠纷解决机制相协调,这有利于激励科技创新,平衡雇主与雇员的利益,进而有助于将中国建设成为创新型国家.     

ERISA, agency costs, and the future of health care in the United States

Because so many Americans receive health insurance through their employers, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 plays a dominant role in the delivery of health care in the United States. The ERISA system enables employers and insurers to save money by providing inadequate health care to employees, thereby creating incentives for these agents to act contrary to the interests of their principals. Such agency costs play a significant role in the current health care crisis and require attention when considering reform. We evaluate the two major health care reform movements by exploring the extent to which each reduces agency costs. We find that agency cost analysis clarifies the benefits, limits, and uncertainties of each approach.     

Prizes for innovation of new medicines and vaccines

This article argues that prizes can help stimulate medical innovation, control costs and ensure greater access to new medicines and vaccines. The authors explore four increasingly ambitious prize options to reward medical innovation, each addressing flaws in the current patent system. The first option promotes innovation through a large prize fund linked to the impact on health outcomes; the second option rewards the sharing of knowledge, data, and technology with open source dividends; the third option awards prizes for interim benchmarks and discrete technical problems; and the final option removes the exclusive right to use patented inventions in upstream research in favor of prizes. The authors conclude that a system of prizes to reward drug development would break the link between R&D incentives and product prices, and that such a reform is needed to improve innovation and access to new medicines and vaccines.     

Entrepreneurship and University Licensing

Outside invention has gained in importance as universities are actively seeking commercialization of their inventions since the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act. The paper analyzes the incentives to invent for outside and inside inventors. It is shown that outside inventors have greater incentives to invent than incumbents. Outside inventors can always fully appropriate the gains from invention irrespective of market structures and firm behaviour. Moreover, outside invention prompts incumbents to commercialize an invention in contrast to inside invention. Embryonic inventions could best be commercialized by new enterprises due to the uncertainty of their outcomes. Cooperative invention could boost consumer welfare but constitutes a lackluster incentive to invent.     

Grant v Commissioner of Patents and patenting knowledge inventions

This article reviews the Full Federal Court decision in Grant v Commissioner of Patents (2006) 154 FCR 62; 69 IPR 221; [2006] FCAFC 120 denying patentability to a method for structuring a financial transaction so as to protect an individual's assets from a loss of ownership as a result of a legal liability. The article challenges the distinctions drawn by the Full Federal Court and argues that the decision marks a new development in setting a boundary for the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) "manner of manufacture". The article concludese that important questions now arise in assessing the possible application of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) to promoting some inventions (and innovations) and not others, and whether there are other classes of inventions that also do not require the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) incentives.     

The Future of Work and U.S. Public Opinion on Noncompete Law: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment

Although policymakers have recently shown a keen interest in noncompete reform, a gap exists in the literature concerning what the U.S. public's preferences are regarding noncompetes. Therefore, this article presents the empirical findings of a nationally-representative survey of the American public on the noncompete law governing employees. Based on the results of a conjoint experiment within the survey, this article finds that the U.S public prefers that noncompetes be used to protect any types of confidential information, rather than simply customer lists or employee training investments. Additionally, the findings do not show clear support either for or against noncompete exemptions based on an employee's earnings level. However, this article finds that the U.S. public prefers a noncompete exemption for physicians, a shorter maximum duration for the noncompete period, and a legal mandate that departing employees subject to noncompetes receive some compensation from the employer during the noncompete period. Consequently, this article argues that employers should engage in greater self-regulation if they would like to mitigate the risk not only that legislators will respond to public sentiment favoring more employee-friendly policies by enacting a total or near-total ban on noncompetes, but also that judges will find the noncompetes to be unreasonable.     

论中小微企业科技创新人才法律保障机制的完善

中小微企业科技创新人才法律保障机制是指从法律上为生产规模较小、从业人员和营业收入较少的企业进行科技创新活动的人才提供保障的机制。我国虽然在《中华人民共和国中小企业促进法》、《中华人民共和国科学技术进步法》等法律法规和政策中对中小微企业科技创新人才法律保障机制进行了初步规定,但还是面临着缺乏专门立法、立法位阶不高、操作性不强、激励机制不完善等困境。美国完善的法律体系、英国的激励机制等值得我国借鉴。我们应该从清理和整合现有法律、法规政策、制定中小微企业科技创新人才保障法、完善人才激励机制和科技服务体系等方面完善中小微企业科技人才法律保障机制。     

Bonus sharing in Soviet economic reforms

Revenue sharing, i.e. workers' remuneration according to enterprise performance, has been advocated as a means against labour shortage (in socialist economies) and also as a solution to unemployment problems (in capitalist economies), with reference to the effects of revenue sharing upon workers' incentives and macro-economic conditions respectively. Compared to existing models of Soviet bonus schemes of 1965, 1986 and 1987 inclusion of these two features changes the conclusions concerning optimum factor inputs. The 1987 enterprise law may stimulate more effort as well as less employment     

‘All About That Bass’? Is non‐ideal‐weight discrimination unlawful in the UK?

People of non‐ideal‐weight (overweight or severely underweight) are subjected to discrimination, in the workplace and elsewhere, based on attitudinal assumptions and negative inferences from their membership of a group, such as that they are insufficiently self‐motivated to make good employees. But is that discrimination unlawful in the UK? The Equality Act 2010 offers only a very tenuous route for protection, because the Act is based largely on a ‘medical model’ of disability. EU law, which embraces a ‘social model’ of disability, drawing from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, offers more, at least in theory. But the mechanisms for enforcing individual EU law rights mean that entitlements in EU law are likely to be enforceable in practice only against state employers. This situation leaves a gap in the law which is remediable only by legislative reform.     

Effects on academia-industry collaboration of extending university property rights

Several recent studies show European university scientists contributing far more frequently to company-owned patented inventions than they do to patents owned by universities or by the academic scientists themselves. Recognising the significance of this channel for direct commercialisation of European academic research makes it important to understand its response to current Bayh-Dole inspired reforms of university patenting rights. This paper studies the contribution from university scientists to inventions patented by dedicated biotech firms (DBFs) specialised in drug discovery in Denmark and Sweden, which in this respect share a number of structural and historic characteristics. It examines effects of the Danish Law on University Patenting (LUP) effective January 2000, which transferred to the employer university rights to patents on inventions made by Danish university scientists alone or as participants in collaborative research with industry. Sweden so far has left property rights with academic scientists, as they also were in Denmark prior to the reform. Consequently, comparison of Danish and Swedish research collaboration before and after LUP offers a quasi-controlled experiment, bringing out effects on joint research of university IPR reform. In original data on all 3,640 inventor contributions behind the 1,087 patents filed by Danish and Swedish DBFs 1990–2004, Difference-in-Difference regressions uncover notable LUP-induced effects in the form of significant reductions in contributions from Danish domestic academic inventors, combined with a simultaneous substitutive increase of non-Danish academic inventors. A moderate increase in academic inventions channelled into university owned-patents does appear after LUP. But the larger part of the inventive potential of academia, previously mobilised into company-owned patents, seems to have been rendered inactive as a result of the reform. As a likely explanation of these effects the paper suggests that exploratory research, the typical target of joint university-DBF projects in drug discovery, fits poorly into LUP’s requirement for ex ante allocation of IPR. The Pre-LUP convention of IPR allocated to the industrial partner in return for research funding and publication rights to the academic partner may have offered more effective contracting for this type of research. There are indications that LUP, outside the exploratory agenda of drug discovery, offers a more productive framework for inventions requiring less complicated and uncertain post-discovery R&D.

Federal employees health benefits program: effective dates--OPM. Proposed rule

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing proposed regulations to change the existing Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program regulations concerning the effective date for new enrollments made by employees during the annual open season. These regulations would also change the effective date of open season changes in enrollment made by employees, annuitants, former spouses and individuals enrolled under the temporary continuation of coverage (TCC) provisions of FEHB law. The proposed regulations would standardize the effective date of most of these new enrollments or changes in enrollment. This would make it easier for employing offices and health plan carriers to administer the Program and reduce the potential for error in determining effective dates.     

Optimal Law Enforcement with Dissemination of Information

In this paper we discuss the implications of introducing imperfect information on the optimal law enforcement literature. We assume that individuals can be imperfectly informed about the probability of apprehension and about the sanction.Imperfect information about the probability and the sanction might pose a problem to criminal deterrence. If that is the case, there are clear incentives to disseminate information about law enforcement (probability and severity of sanction). However, note that individuals also have incentives to buy information about law enforcement: they may erroneously decide to become criminals (because they have underestimated the expected sanction) or they may erroneously decide not to become criminals (because they have overestimated the expected sanction).This paper proposed that it is optimal to complement criminal punishment with some disclosure of information.     

Managing and incentivizing research commercialization in Chinese Universities

Research shows that there are important institutional underpinnings for building university–industry linkages. This paper aims to understand how China is developing the relevant organizational structures and incentives in its universities. What academic institutions shape the scope and channels of university–industry linkages? What incentives do universities provide to encourage and facilitate faculty engagement with industry? My analysis is accomplished through content analysis of university documents and in-depth interviews with personnel in two top institutions—Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University, supplemented by official statistics. It shows that the hybrid organizational structure to manage technology transfer is a product of historical legacy and institutional learning—parts uniquely Chinese and parts adapted from the West. Faculty incentives also have varied effects. In spite of being enticed to disclose inventions and pursue commercialization, faculty remains keener on scholarly publications.     

Patenting nanotechnology

Universities and companies are rushing to the patent office in record numbers to patent nanotechnology inventions. This rush to the patent office is so significant that many law firms have established nanotechnology practice groups and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has now created a new technology class designed to track nanotechnology products. Three big differences between the emerging science of nanotechnology and other inventions make the role of patents more significant in this arena than elsewhere. First, this is almost the first new field in a century in which the basic ideas are being patented at the outset. In many of the most important fields of invention over the past century--computer hardware, software, the Internet, even biotechnology--the basic building blocks of the field were either unpatented or the patents were made available to all users by government regulation. In others, patents were delayed by interferences for so long that the industry developed free from their influence. In nanotechnology, by contrast, companies and universities alike are patenting early and often. A second factor distinguishing nanotechnology is its unique cross-industry structure. Unlike other new industries, in which the patentees are largely actual or at least potential participants in the market, a significant number of nanotechnology patentees will own rights not just in the industry in which they participate, but in other industries as well. This overlap may significantly affect their incentives to license the patents. Finally, a large number of the basic nanotechnology patents have been issued to universities, which have become far more active in patenting in the last twenty-five years. While universities have no direct incentive to restrict competition, their interests may or may not align with the optimal implementation of building-block nanotechnology inventions. The result is a nascent market in which a patent thicket is in theory a serious risk. Whether it will prove a problem in practice depends in large part on how efficient the licensing market turns out to be.     

法治视野下的涉法信访工作

信访的制度性缺陷,使得涉法信访大量发生,公共信用和权威受到严重损害,从而动摇了国家法治的基础。在此情况下,以法治为内容的信访制度改革,是解决涉法信访问题的根本出路。而以社会主义法治理念为指导,进一步更新信访理念、规范信访事项、统一信访机构、完善信访机制,则是当前涉法信访工作的重点。     

美国劳动法上雇用自由原则的公共政策例外:形成、实践与反思

公共政策例外是美国各州法院司法实务中形成的普通法例外,它构成了对美国传统劳动法上雇用自由原则的限制。该例外的适用,为那些因拒绝从事违反公共政策行为而遭解雇的员工提供了侵权法上的诉因。由于法院在适用该例外时对公共政策的涵义和法源存在不同认识,因而导致司法判决的不统一,对全面保护劳动者权益造成不利影响。为了改变这种状况,应当通过对法律的明文规定探求公共政策的法源,并在此基础上扩大公共政策例外在不当解雇案件中的适用。     

文化产业发展中的反垄断法制建设新问题

文化体制改革深入把文化产业市场化发展的有关问题推到了法学研究的前沿,特别是对与市场经济紧密联系的竞争法提出了新的课题。文化产业有区别于其他一般经济领域的特殊性,西方国家的立法经验和法律实践表明文化产业的市场化经营必须依靠竞争法调整和保障。发展文化产业给反垄断法制建设提出了新要求,正在制定中的我国反垄断法应就与文化产业发展有关的竞争问题作出相应的规定,为文化产业的市场化改革和发展提供法律保障。     

Shaping the path to inventive activity: the role of past experience in R&D alliances

In this paper, we investigate a recurrent organizational event—R&D strategic alliances—and analyze its multidimensional effect on inventive activity; in particular, we examine the quality of the inventive process outcome. In so doing, we address the still-unresolved issue of the impact of past experience in explaining performance differences between firms in the realm of alliance inventiveness. Our results offer new insights concerning the crucial drivers of invention quality and technological breakthroughs. As expected, results suggest that—in the area of R&D—alliances formed by experienced partners are more likely to produce inventions that effectively synthesize technological knowledge from more diverse domains. In fact, experienced alliance partners are more likely to generate useful inventions with a greater innovative impact on others’ subsequent inventions—knowledge that can be built upon. Surprisingly, results are indeterminate with regard to whether innovation via R&D alliance increases invention’s degree of applicability across diverse scientific and technological fields that might cite its patent.     

DNA as patentable subject matter and a narrow framework for addressing the perceived problems caused by gene patents

Concerns about the alleged harmful effects of gene patents--including hindered research and innovation and impeded patient access to high-quality genetic diagnostic tests--have resulted in overreactions from the public and throughout the legal profession. These overreactions are exemplified by Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a 2010 case in the Southern District of New York that held that isolated DNA is unpatentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The problem with these responses is that they fail to adequately consider the role that gene patents and patents on similar biomolecules play in facilitating investment in the costly and risky developmental processes required to transform the underlying inventions into marketable products. Accordingly, a more precisely refined solution is advisable. This Note proposes a narrowly tailored set of solutions to address the concerns about gene patents without destroying the incentives for companies to create and commercialize inventions derived from these and similar patents.     

Legal Responses to the Standard Form Contract of Employment

Having suggested that the advent of standard form contractsof employment is a neglected aspect of employment law, an assessmentis made of two of the main legal responses to the potentialunfairness of terms, namely implied terms and the applicationof section 3 the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. The Law Commission'sproposed legislative reform is also examined. It is concludedthat only by combining terms implied by the law with the statutoryprotection of reasonable expectations of employees will thelaw succeed in devising an adequate technique for rebalancingcontracts of employment.