Employee Inventions in China

If it is a service invention, the employer is the applicant — and must still pay the inventor.

Under the Patent Law, an invention made in the course of duty, or mainly with the employer’s material and technical conditions, is typically a service invention owned by the entity. The inventor has a right to be named and to reward plus reasonable remuneration if a patent is granted and exploited. Contracts can clarify use of company resources, but they cannot simply erase inventor-remuneration rules. Vendor and joint-lab inventions follow the commissioning or cooperation contract. File before the employee publishes. This is ownership, not the three patent types — those stay on the live patent Quick Answer.

The classification screen

4 questions before you choose the route.

This page identifies the right question and evidence. It does not determine the legal outcome on a reader’s facts.

Was it made on the job or with company resources?

Duty, targets, lab, data, money — the service-invention facts.

Service

Is there a written IP and remuneration policy?

Missing policy does not give the invention to the employee, but it creates disputes.

Policy

Who will be the CNIPA applicant?

Entity vs individual vs joint.

Applicant

Has the inventor already published or left?

Novelty and a leaver who files in their own name.

Race

Working rule: Under the Patent Law, an invention made in the course of duty, or mainly with the employer’s material and technical conditions, is typically a service invention owned by the entity.

What changes the answer

The signal ledger.

These facts move the question beyond a label and into a product, money-flow and control analysis.

Signal

Ask the operating question

Why it changes the route

Employee self-filed

Did they apply at CNIPA in their own name?

Ownership and assignment become the case.

Vendor built it

Was this commissioned software or hardware?

Commissioning defaults can differ from employment defaults.

No remuneration

Was a patent exploited with zero inventor pay?

Additional facts can change the Intellectual Property route, evidence and next step.

Prepare before you escalate

Bring a compact evidence docket—not a pitch deck.

Give a compliance team or counsel the operating facts that reveal the perimeter.

01Employment and IP policyDuty, invention reporting, reward/remuneration rules.

02Invention recordWhen, with whose resources, related to which task.

03CNIPA filingsApplicant name and inventor name.

04Vendor contractsIf any non-employee created part of it.

Common confusions

Questions people ask before they build.

Short answers for orientation. The right result can change with the service model and current rules.

Can the labor contract say the employee owns nothing and gets nothing?

Ownership of service inventions is generally with the employer. Inventor reward and remuneration have a statutory basis that a one-line waiver may not erase. Draft a real policy.

What if they invented at home on the weekend?

Off-duty inventions without company resources can belong to the employee. Using company data or relating to assigned tasks pulls it back toward service invention.

Primary authorities

Reviewed sources support orientation, not a fact-specific assessment.

National laws database (NPC)

CNIPA

PRC Patent Law

Supreme People’s Court