I work in manufacturing in quite a niche global industry and have done so since leaving school.

My role is development/projects – I work by myself and design & construct processes for use inhouse.
Over the last 2 years I’ve slowly developed a process which has resulted in a unique patentable design.
My employer/line manager/upper management have no idea/thoughts about patenting it.

Would you mention it – and help potentially safeguard the future of the company or, keep quiet and take the idea with you should something go wrong with the employment?

(BTW im perfectly happy with my employment – its safe and secure, but I always like having a planB just in case).

Sorry, confused.

Your employers pay you to design and construct processes, and during your time at work you’ve designed process which you think could be patented. And you’re wondering whether to steal that idea and patent it yourself.

Have I got that right?

Patent it, the initial process, for EU application, will cost a few £k, but after a few years it gets expensive as you have to file separately in European countries which incurs translation costs IIRC.

Looks good on your CV etc.

Check your contract, but it is rather likely that any intellectual property that stems from your work will belong to your employer.

That said, patenting things is a good thing. So crack on.

Talk to management, & check your contract. In many industries, inventors get their name on the patent & a share of licence money.

I’m sure if your employer found out they’d begin legal preceedings citing the patent is theirs (your brain is effectively their intellectual property, that’s what they pay you for).

Is there not a reward for submitting patents?! There is at the company I work for, depending on the commercial value of the IP, it can be pretty lucrative for the originator.

There’s no reward for patents and previous inventions/development before my time were never patented.
I’ll have a chat with management but my gut feeling is that it won’t progress much further patent wise which will probably answer my own question!

You’d get your name on the patent, but whether you’d be entitled to any loyalties / fees would probably be subject to negotiation / depends on what your contract says. I have my name on the patent for the car jack that is installed in most of the cars made in Europe – if I’d got a fraction of penny for each I’d probably be a few millions up but get nothing!

If you try and patent independently they would be well within their rights to assert their ownership. Best thing would be to be up front with them. Explain what you have invented then if they are not interested get them to sign the rights over to you. Be prepared for them to ask for a % of any royalties. OK they may not want to stump up for a patent but then you did come up with the idea whilst they were paying your salary

its such a small niche industry that there would be potentially be only half a dozen global competitors and a few OEMs who would benefit from knowing our IP.

TBH i’d not thought about being named on a patent and potentially what employment doors that could open outside of my industry ifsomething ever happened with my employment.

Is it related to your line of work? If so and you have been developing it during work hours then the chances are that there’ll be something in your contract saying the idea is theirs.

That’s how it’s been at every place I’ve worked.

Dunno how enforceable it is and whether a company would ever find out…

I understand that the IP belongs to the company – Im not wanting to patent it myself, it was more a case of my employer has historically never bothered with patent protection as its always kept a closed door and any inventions/development have always been for inhouse use.

I was just wondering if I should mention the idea to management or leave the knowledge/IP ‘parked’ in case I ever needed to knock on a competitors doors in the future.

As I posted above – I’d not thought about the benefits of being named on a patent and that could be more beneficial in opening doors outside of my very small industry.

Why do you think a patent is a good idea?
Patents make a thing/process public. It may be better just to use it in house if it gives your company an advantage. If it’s a process, it may not be easy to spot infringement anyway. Plus, as mentioned above, patents start out expensive and get really expensive. (The idea being that you only maintain a patent if it’s worth it.)

Again, refer to you contract because if you take the IP away and give it to someone else its effectively theft, as its not yours to give away. Besides, it’s not the IP per se but the fact that you can come up with innovative ideas that makes you employable – employers want to know what you could do in the future, not what you did previously.

Recently my company has been very interested in patenting processes as it can seriously restrict the competition (well other patents are seriously restricting us).
If you tell your company about it they can choose patent it or do nothing. Your contract will state if there is a reward.
If you do not tell them then you can’t go to a competitor and tell them about it. Its slightly shady but I have seen a few people work out a process then quit and after some time set up a new company using said process.

Notwithstanding anything in any rule of law, an invention made by an employee shall, as between him and his employer, be taken to belong to his employer for the purposes of this Act and all other purposes if ­
(a) it was made in the course of the normal duties of the employee or in the course of duties falling outside his normal duties, but specifically assigned to him, and the circumstances in either case were such that an invention might reasonably be expected to result from the carrying out of his duties; or
(b) the invention was made in the course of the duties of the employee and, at the time of making the invention, because of the nature of his duties and the particular responsibilities arising from the nature of his duties he had a special obligation to further the interests of the employer’s undertaking.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/manual-of-patent-practice-mopp/section-39-right-to-employees-inventions

So up to you to reveal your ideas, if your employer doesn’t incentivise it then why bother? Will you get a bonus out of? a % of costs saved? an easier life?

You could quit and then a few months later the idea could come to you in the bath… then it would be difficult for them to prove it didn’t occur to you whilst employed.

was just wondering if I should mention the idea to management or leave the knowledge/IP ‘parked’ in case I ever needed to knock on a competitors doors in the future.

….and leave yourself open to legal action.

Stop thinking about being a weasel, front up to your employer and work something mutually agreeable out.

IP doesn’t have have to be patented to bellong to someone.

If I design something on the clock then the company owns that design (e.g. the 3D CAD file). But it’s not patented. Those could be patented but that would mean both telling compettitors how we do jobs and paying money to register them.

But if I went ellsewhere I couldnt take those designs with me, even though they’re not patented. I can start from scratch and cone up with a similar design but if it came to it Id have to demonstrate that it was done that way (sketches, meeting minutes, calculations).

My last job actually had clauses that meant all IP bellong to them whether inside or outside of work unless agreed in advance. E.g. if I had an idea I would have to get their blessing to develop it in my own time or they could take it themselves.

Google – Maurus C. Logan

Who never made a penny from inventing one of the worlds most useful ‘things’

There’s no reward for patents and previous inventions/development before my time were never patented.
I’ll have a chat with management but my gut feeling is that it won’t progress much further patent wise which will probably answer my own question!

its such a small niche industry that there would be potentially be only half a dozen global competitors and a few OEMs who would benefit from knowing our IP.

It may well not be the best strategic choice to patent it then. Would your company have the clout to enforce it? Would you even know if someone else was infringing? Is your novel and inventive step really broad enough to stop others inventing around it. Unless you have the right answers to all of those, your patent would be for vanity only- which unless you are trying to attract investors/buyers is probably not a wise use of funds.

TBH i’d not thought about being named on a patent and potentially what employment doors that could open outside of my industry ifsomething ever happened with my employment.

what will definitely not help your career is an employer thinking you are the type of person who steals their IP.

Is it a treadmill for planes? Big money if you’re first in I’d say.

No comments on anything, but I thought the Hans Reynolds patent story might be good to share here.

http://www.renold.com/company/history/

It may well not be the best strategic choice to patent it then. Would your company have the clout to enforce it? Would you even know if someone else was infringing? Is your novel and inventive step really broad enough to stop others inventing around it. Unless you have the right answers to all of those, your patent would be for vanity only- which unless you are trying to attract investors/buyers is probably not a wise use of funds.

^^ These are wise words. An IP lawyer told me that unless your pockets are deep enough to defend a patent, don’t go there. Better to keep the IP in-house and use it.