Consolidate
 Act No. 104 of 24 January 2012 
The Consolidate Employees’ Inventions Act 
Publication of the Employees’ Inventions Act, 
cf. Consolidate Act No. 131 of 18 March 
1986 including the amendments which follow from section 51 of Act No. 130 of 26 February 1992, section 44 of Act No. 523 of 6 June 2007 and section 8 of Act No. 1370 of 
1) 28 December 2011. 
1.2)-(1) For the purposes of this Act the term 
“inventions” comprises inventions which are 
patentable in this Kingdom and creations 
which are registrable as utility models in this 
Kingdom. 
(2) The term “employee” comprises any 
person who is employed in public or private 
service. 
(3) Teachers and other scientific personnel at 
universities and other institutes of higher 
education shall in that capacity not be regarded as employees and shall have the full 
right to the inventions made by them, unless 
otherwise provided by other legislation or implied by an agreement. 
2.- Provided that they have not expressly been 
declared to be indispensable, the provisions of 
this Act shall apply only if nothing else has been or may be considered to be agreed. 3.- To the extent nothing else follows from this Act or other Acts an employee shall have the right to the inventions made by him. 
4.-(Repealed) 
5.- If an employee has made an invention 
which he may be considered to have arrived at 
through his employment, the employer shall, 
provided that the exploitation of the invention falls within the scope of the activities of his undertaking, be entitled to claim that the right to the invention be transferred to him for one or more countries. The same right shall be enjoyed by the employer even if the exploitation of the invention does not fall within the scope of the activities of the undertaking, if the employee’s invention relates to a specific task assigned to him by the undertaking. 
6.- An employee who has made an invention 
comprised be the provisions of section 5 shall be obliged to notify the employer thereof without undue delay giving such information about the invention as to enable the employer to estimate the importance of the invention. 
7.
3)-(1) If an employer wants to acquire the 
right to an invention under section 5, he shall 
The Ministry of Business and Growth                   
The Patent and Trademark Office, File No. 12/4    __________ 2 
notify the employee to that effect within four 
months after having received the notification referred to in section 6. 
(2) Before the expiry of that time limit the 
employee may not without the employer’s 
written consent dispose of the invention or 
disclose it to others in such a way that it may be published or exploited for the account of others. That shall, however, not apply if the employer has declared in writing not to be interested in the invention. 
(3) Even if the said time limit has not expired, 
the employee may, as soon as he has given 
such notification as referred to in section 6, apply for a patent for the invention or for the registration of the creation, but in that case he shall notify the employer to that effect beforehand. The employee may not renounce that right in advance. 
8.
4)-(1) If the employer under section 5 or on 
another basis acquires the right to an 
invention made by the employee, the employee shall, even if something else might 
be agreed, be entitled to a reasonable 
compensation, unless the value of the 
invention does not exceed what the employee, 
in view of his working conditions as a whole, 
may reasonably be assumed to produce. 
(2) In fixing the compensation the value of 
the invention and its importance for the 
undertaking, the employee’s employment conditions and the influence which the employee’s service has had on the invention shall be taken into consideration. 
(3) Even if something else might be agreed, 
stipulations or agreements relating to 
compensation may be modified subsequently at the request of either party when the determining conditions have changed substantially or when indicated by other special circumstances. However, return of benefits which the employee has received on the basis of a previous fixing of the compensation shall never be effected pursuant to the above provision. 9.
5)- If within six months after an employee 
has retired from his employment a patent or a utility model registration is applied for for an invention made by him which, if it had come into existence during the employment, would have been comprised by the provisions of section 5, the invention shall be considered made during the employment, unless it can be rendered probable that the invention has come into existence after the termination of the contract of service. 
10.- An agreement between an employer and 
an employee for the purpose of limiting the employee’s right to dispose of inventions 
made later than one year after the termination of the contract of service shall be void. 
11.-(Repealed). 
12.
6)-(1) Any person who in consequence of 
the provisions of this Act learns about an 
invention may not unauthorised exploit what 
he has learnt in that way or uninvited disclose anything about it. 
(2) Intentional violation of this provision or 
the provision of section 7(2) shall be punished 
with fines or imprisonment of up to four months. Fines shall go to the Treasury. 
(3) Proceedings shall be instituted by the 
injured party. 
13.-(Not reproduced). 
14.-(Repealed). 
Act No. 130 of 26 February 1992 contains the 
following provisions as to entry into force and transitional provisions: 
52.-(1) This Act shall enter into force on 1 
July 1992, cf., however, subsection 2. __________ 
__________ 3 
(2) to (3) (Transitional provisions, not 
reproduced). 
Act No. 523 of 6 June 2007 contains the 
following provisions as to entry into force and transitional provisions: 
Section 47 
This Act shall enter into force on 1 January 
2008. 
Section 48 
(1) This Act shall apply also to previously 
created claims which are not statute-barred 
pursuant to the previous rules before the date of the entry into force. Statute-barring shall, however, at the earliest set in on 1 January 2011 unless the claim before that date would have been statute-barred pursuant to the 
previous rules as well as pursuant to the rules 
in force after the entry into force of this Act, cf., however, subsection 7. In the latter case the latest date shall be applied to the setting in of the statute-barring. 
(2) An interruption of a statute-barring which 
has occurred before the entry into force of this 
Act shall continue to have effect as an interruption even if it has not occurred in the way prescribed by this Act. 
(3)to (8) (Transitional provisions, not 
reproduced). 
Act No. 1370 of 28 December 2011 contains 
the following provisions as to entry into force and transitional provisions: 
Section 9 
This Act shall enter into force on 1 February 2012. 
The Ministry of Business and Growth, 24 January 2012 
OLE SOHN 
/Jesper Kongstad 
1) This Consolidate Act contains information about provisions as to entry into force and transitional provisions adopted 
during the sessional years 1991/1992 to 2011/2012 of the Danish Parliament (the Folketing). Provisions as to entry 
into force and transitional provisions for previously adopted amendments of the Employees’ Inventions Act are laid 
down in Consolidate Act No. 131 of 18 March 1986. The amendments indicated below in consequence of Act No. 
130 of 26 February 1992 on Utility Models, etc., Act No. 523 of 6 June 2007 to Amend various Legal Provisions on 
the Statute-Barring of Claims, etc. and Act No. 1370 of 28 December 2011 to Amend the Patents Act and various other Acts shall not apply to the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, but may by Royal Ordinance be put into force for the Faeroe Islands and Greenland with such deviations as the circumstances of the Faeroe Islands and Greenland may 
require. 
2) Section 1(1) in the wording of this Act entered into force on 1 July 1992, cf. Act No. 130 of 26 February 1992. 4 
3) Section 7(3) in the wording of this Act entered into force on 1 July 1992, cf. Act No. 130 of 26 February 1992. 
4) Section 8(3) in the previous wording was repealed by Act No. 523 of 6 June 2007, which entered into force on 1 
January 2008. Hence section 8(4) became section 8(3). 
5) Section 9 in the wording of this Act entered into force on 1 July 1992, cf. Act No. 130 of 26 February 1992. 
6) Section 12(2) in the wording of this Act entered into force on 1 February 2012, cf. Act No. 1370 of 28 December 
2011.