French Intellectual Property Code
In forceI.-For civil servants or public employees of the State and its public establishments falling within the categories defined in the appendix to this article and who are the authors of an invention mentioned in 1 of article R. 611-12, the additional remuneration provided for in article L. 611-7 is made up of a profit-sharing bonus on the products derived from the invention by the public person who is the beneficiary and a patent bonus.
II.-The profit-sharing bonus is calculated, for each invention, on a basis consisting of the income, excluding taxes, received each year in respect of the invention by the public entity, after deduction of all the direct costs incurred by the latter for the current year as well as the direct costs incurred in previous years which were not deducted due to insufficient income, and multiplied by the coefficient representing the contribution to the invention of the employee concerned. The patent premium is not included in direct expenses.
The bonus due to each agent who is the author of an invention corresponds, including charges, to 50% of the base defined above, up to the amount of the gross annual pensionable salary corresponding to the second chevron of the group outside scale D, and, above this amount, to 25% of this base.
The incentive bonus is paid annually and may be subject to advances during the year.
III.-The patent bonus is a lump sum. Its amount is set by joint order of the ministers responsible for the budget, the civil service and research. For each employee, it is allocated a coefficient representing his/her contribution to the invention.
This bonus is paid in two instalments. Entitlement to the first instalment, representing 20% of the amount of the bonus, arises at the end of a period of one year from the date on which the first patent application is filed. The right to payment of the second instalment is opened when an operating licence or assignment contract for the said patent is signed.
IV.-Where more than one member of staff is the author of the same invention, the respective contribution of each of them to the invention, represented by a coefficient, is determined definitively before the first annual payment in respect of the additional remuneration mentioned in I or, where applicable, before the payment of advances, in accordance with the procedures laid down by the minister with authority over the department or by the principal authorising officer of the public entity. Where a single member of staff is the author of the invention, the coefficient representing his contribution is equal to 1.
If the invention is the result of collaboration between members of staff reporting to several public bodies, the procedures for distributing and paying the profit-sharing bonus and the patent bonus are decided jointly by the public bodies concerned.
V.-Where the invention has been made by the employee as part of his main activity, the remuneration due in respect of the incentive bonus and the patent bonus shall be paid to him, in addition to his activity remuneration, without any limitation other than that provided for in this article.
Where applicable, the profit-sharing bonus shall continue to be paid to the employee during the time the invention is being exploited, if the employee leaves the service for any reason whatsoever or is entitled to a retirement pension. In the event of the employee's death, the profit-sharing bonus and the patent bonus are paid until the end of the calendar year in which the employee dies.
