NEW FORMS OF PROTECTION FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE SOVIET UNION AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA
| Published date | 01 July 1969 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1969.tb01224.x |
| Author | S. J. Soltysinski |
| Date | 01 July 1969 |
NEW FORMS
OF
PROTECTION FOR
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
IN
THE
SOVIET UNION AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA
THE
system of intellectual property has often been subject to severe
criticism.
For
instance, while authors and inventors may enjoy
copyrights
or
patents, scientists and other categories of creators can
claim
no
benefits from the industrial exploitation of their ideas
which are considered as non-patentable
or
non-copyrightable subject-
matter.’
On
the other hand, the patent system has largely lost its
original purpose which consisted in providing incentives to indi-
vidual inventors. The recognition of the employer’s right to
inventions made by his employee has resulted in depriving the latter
of all benefits associated with a patent. Therefore, the proposals
for reform usually aim at two things: the recognition of the right
of scientists in their discoveries and the granting of more adequate
protection to inventors.2
This paper attempts to analyse how these problems have been
solved by socialist legislation. The fist part of the article deals
with the protection of discoveries under Czechoslovak and Soviet
law. The underlying concept of this new branch of law is to provide
legal protection for the creators of non-patentable scientific dis-
coveries and ideas,
i.e.,
the discovery
or
formulation of laws and
properties of the material world. The consideration of this subject
will be preceded by
a
short analysis of the main obstacles to the
introduction of this new class of intellectual property.
In
a socialist, as well as in
a
capitalist, state, the patent for
an employee’s invention usually belongs to the employer. However,
socialist legislation provides
a
new system of rewards intended to
compensate the loss of exclusive rights by this category of inventors.
Therefore, the second part of the paper is devoted to this new
scheme of protection, which is
known
as a
‘‘
certificate
of
authorship,” under Soviet law.
ORIGIN
OF
QUESTION
OF
DISCOVERERS’ RIGHTS
(SCIENTIFIC PROPERTY)
Patent and copyright protection has been introduced to encourage
the progress of science and the useful arts. The decisions imple-
1
Note,
“
Nonpatentable and Noncopyrightable Trade
Values
”
(1959) 59
Col.
L.R. 902-926;
La
Propridtd Scienttfique,
Le
Project de
la
Confdddration des
Trauailleurs
Intellectuels
(Paris, 1923)
;
W.
Erman,
Wissentschaftliche Eigen-
turn
(Marburg, 1929), pp.. 1-30.
2
S.
Ladas,
The Internatronal Protection of Industrial Property
(Cambridge,
1930), pp. 845-872.
3
The term
“
scientific property
”
refers
to
the rightfaof scientists
in
their di:;
coveries.
and the German term
“
wissentschaftliche Eigentum
”;
see
also
note
1
above.
It is
an
equivalent
of
the French phrase la propriktk scientifique
408
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