Invention by employee or person commissioned

(1) Where an invention is made in execution of a contract of employment or for the execution of work, the right to the patent shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, belong to the employer or the person who commissioned the work, as the case may be. (2) Where an invention referred to in sub-section (1) acquires an economic value much greater than the parties could reasonably have foreseen at the time of concluding the contract 15 of employment or for the execution of work, as the case may be, the inventor shall be entitled to equitable remuneration which may be fixed by the Court in the absence of agreement between the parties. (3) Where an employee whose contract of employment does not require him to engage in any inventive activity makes, in the field of the activities of his employer, an invention using information or means placed at his disposal by his employer, the right to the patent for such invention shall be deemed to accrue to the employer in the absence of any provision to the contrary in the contract of employment, provided that the employee shall be entitled to equitable remuneration which, in the absence of agreement between the parties, may be fixed by the Court taking into account his emoluments, the economic value of the invention and any benefit derived from it by the employer. (4) For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby declared that when an invention is made by an employee whose contract of employment does not require him to engage in inventive activity, or in a field of activity different from that of his employer, and without using information or means put at his disposal by the employer, the right to the patent for such invention shall accrue to the employee. (5) The rights conferred on the inventor under sub-sections (1), (2), (3) and (4) shall not be restricted by contract. (6) This section shall not apply to an invention made before the coming into force of this Act.