근로자의 직무발명과 정당한 보상에 관한 연구

Study on the Employee Inventions and the Fair Compensation System

As many inventions in the modern knowledge-based economy are made by organizations such as universities, research institutes, or businesses, great attention has been drawn recently to the employee invention system. Equitable use of the employee invention system encourages employees to create valuable inventions and furthermore benefits employers as they seek to retain distinguished researchers and prevent the outflow of trade secrets. In Korea, the amended Invention Promotion Act of 2006 aims to systemize and unify the employee invention system as a whole, which had previously fallen under both the pre-amendment Invention Promotion Act and the Patent Law. While there are many legal issues in the employee invention system, the remuneration issue is directly related to the employee’s actual rights and thus both employer and employee can easily realize its importance. It thus seems very meaningful at this point to review the employee invention system according to under the amended Invention Promotion Act and analyze the standard of fair compensation for employee inventors based on actual legal cases. The amended Invention Promotion Act of 2006 is important in that it enhances predictability and legal stability and makes possible, through voluntary negotiation, various types of remuneration appropriate to each respective corporation. However, it seems nonsensical that as long as a reasonable procedure is guaranteed the contract and work regulations between an employer and employee may be considered valid even when the specific details of remuneration cannot be regarded as fair. Though the amended Invention Promotion Act has great worth in the sense that it unifies and systemizes the employee invention system, the present employee invention system seems insufficient to protect employees who are in a weak social and economic position. Thus, through a review of the present employee invention system and related court decisions, this study attempts to identify problems in the system and find measures of improvement.