Employee A in the legal department of pharmaceutical company B-GmbH is bored with his monotonous job and is studying chemistry and pharmacy on the side. When A comes across a memo from the development department, he has a brilliant idea: he discovers a new (and inventive) molecule that is groundbreaking in the fight against cancer.

Question: Is this an employee's invention?

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Dough Rolling Mechanism

An engineering firm (sole proprietor Dipl.-Ing. A) develops a new cake baking machine for a mechanical engineering company B, which incorporates an inventive dough rolling mechanism. B wants to claim the invention and pay A inventor's remuneration for it.

Question: Is this possible? What contractual agreement should B conclude with A before development begins?

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A is an employee of B-GmbH, a company operating in the chemical industry. C is A's father and is retired after working for B-GmbH. In their spare time, the two of them jointly develop a process for producing particularly pure nitric acid. They experiment in C's basement during A's vacation.

Question: Is this a service invention?

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C is an employee of D-AG, which develops and sells sporting goods. C, who is actually employed in the marketing department for home training equipment, invents a new coating for soccer goalkeeper gloves in his spare time after learning about the need for such a coating at the company. C believes that the invention is free of claims by D-AG and registers the invention in his own name. D-AG would like to use the invention for the soccer goalkeeper gloves in its own product range.

Question: Can D-AG claim the invention?

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