職務発明 and 業務発明

[Jon Johanning]

Yakkers:

I would like to pin down the proper English for 職務発明 and 業務発明.
Can't seem to find them.

TIA,

Jon Johanning

[John Stroman]

Jon,

Somewhere in the distant past I downloaded a PDF of the Patent Act
with English translation attached. I can't verify how official it is,
but Article 35 calls 職務発明 "employee invention."

This website <http://www.geocities.co.jp/CollegeLife-Lounge/9641/sotsuron/2-1.htm>
has the following and gives clear definitions.

従業者発明は企業との係わり合いから職務発明service invention、業務発明dependent or connected
invention、自由発明free inventionに分類される。

The latter terms seem to be used internationally whereas "employee
invention" seems to come up only sporadically.

The definitions are used to determine who owns the rights to the patent.

John Stroman

[JimBreen]

On Saturday, 10 November 2012 06:49:06 UTC+11, John Stroman wrote:

Somewhere in the distant past I downloaded a PDF of the Patent Act
with English translation attached. I can't verify how official it is,
but Article 35 calls 職務発明 "employee invention."

 職務発明 is in a lot of references, including 大辞林, GG5, etc. It's
also on the University of Washington legal glossary.

This website <http://www.geocities.co.jp/CollegeLife-Lounge/9641/sotsuron/2-1.htm>
has the following and gives clear definitions.

従業者発明は企業との係わり合いから職務発明service invention、業務発明dependent or connected
invention、自由発明free inventionに分類される。

 業務発明 is in theルミナス和英辞典 as:
"invention developed as a result of one's job (work)", but
how that differs from 職務発明 is not clear.

The latter terms seem to be used internationally whereas "employee
invention" seems to come up only sporadically.

自由発明 is another muddy one. GG5 has "free invention",
as does Eijiro. Does this mean an invention where the
inventor is free to patent it him/herself (as opposed to the
IP belonging to an employer.?)

Jim

[JimBreen]

On Saturday, 10 November 2012 08:50:52 UTC+11, JimBreen wrote:

On Saturday, 10 November 2012 06:49:06 UTC+11, John Stroman wrote:

Somewhere in the distant past I downloaded a PDF of the Patent Act
with English translation attached. I can't verify how official it is,
but Article 35 calls 職務発明 "employee invention."

 職務発明 is in a lot of references, including 大辞林, GG5, etc. It's
also on the University of Washington legal glossary.

My mistake - it's not in the UoW glossary. It's in the government's
"standard dictionary". (Can't decode my own tags...)

Jim

[Herman]

On 11/9/2012 11:49, John Stroman wrote:
> Jon,
>
> Somewhere in the distant past I downloaded a PDF of the Patent Act
> with English translation attached. I can't verify how official it is,
> but Article 35 calls 職務発明 "employee invention."
>
> This website <http://www.geocities.co.jp/CollegeLife-Lounge/9641/sotsuron/2-1.htm>
> has the following and gives clear definitions.
>
> 従業者発明は企業との係わり合いから職務発明service invention、業務発明dependent or connected
> invention、自由発明free inventionに分類される。
>
> The latter terms seem to be used internationally whereas "employee
> invention" seems to come up only sporadically.

'employee invention' or 'service invention' are reasonable translations
for 職務発明, but I think 'service invention' is better, since 職務発明,
業務発明 and 自由発明 are all 'employee inventions'.

The term 'dependent invention' would be generally used and most likely
understood to mean 'an invention which depends on another invention',
and does not seem to be a literally or otherwise valid translation of 業
務発明 (which has the meaning, within the context of Japanese patent
law, of an invention by an employee which is related to the business of
the company but is not a 職務発明).

I would suggest 'work-related invention' for 業務発明, with the proviso
that this term is most likely to be understood as synonymous to
'employee invention' or 'service invention' and does not in itself make
the distinction found in the Japanese usage of 職務発明 v 業務発明.

The similar terms 'Diensterfindung' (service invention) and 'freie
Erfindung' (free invention) are used in German law, but defined in such
a way that 業務発明 and 自由発明 would both fall within the category of
'free invention'.

Herman Kahn