Employees' Inventions - Shanks v Unilever
Colworth House, Unilever's Research and Development Facility Author Lecomte99 Copyright waived by the author Source Wikipedia Colworth House Jane Lambert Supreme Court (Lady Hale, Lord Reed, Lord Hodge, Lady Black and Lord Kitchin) Shanks v Unilever Plc [2019] UKSC 45 (23 Oct 2019) Nowadays most commercially successful inventions in the United Kingdom are made by scientists, engineers or other technically qualified people working for companies, research institutes or universities at places like Colworth House in Bedfordshire. Most of those scientists, engineers and technicians are paid very well for their work and many of them receive side benefits like company cars, private health insurance and stock options. Employees' Inventions It is for that reason that s.39 (1) of the Patents Acr 1977 provides: "Notwithstanding anything in any rule of law, an invention made by an employee shall, as between him and h...