Lexis Insights

An employer only needs to show that “an” invention might reasonably be expected to result from the carrying out of the employee’s duties.

In Acron International Technology Ltd v Chan Yiu Wai, the court clarified that for s.57 of the Patents Ordinance, it was unnecessary for the employer to show that “the particular” invention might reasonably be expected to result from the carrying out of the employee’s duties. “An” invention might reasonably be expected to result from the carrying out of his duties, the invention will belong to his employer. So an employer of a cancer researcher who invents an arthritis cure will still be entitled to the rights to the arthritis cure.