Intellectual Property Rights

This entry of the phdhandbook.se was made in collaboration with the Swedish Intellectual Property Office (Patent och Registreringsverket (PRV), and was written by Christin Wendel. If you have any questions regarding the content of it – we recommend that you contact your local innovation office, your trade union, and the Swedish Intellectual Property Office directly.

Intellectual property rights are legislated in four acts:

The patents act (Patentlagen) (see below for English version)
The trademarks act (Varumärkeslagen) (see below for English version)
The design protection act (Mönsterskyddslagen) (see below for English version)
The copyright act (Upphovsrättslagen) (see below for English version)

The owner of an intellectual property right may hinder others from exploiting the intangible asset that the intellectual property right covers. This means that no one may exploit an intangible asset protected by an intellectual property right without the consent of the owner of the right. Some examples of intangible assets that may be subject to intellectual property rights are inventions, designs, texts, software, distinguishing marks, photography and other visual art, and music.

General principles of creation, ownership, and rights to use

In principle, the intellectual property right is awarded the creator(s) of an intangible asset. The ownership of the intellectual property right, in whole or in part, may be transferred. The owner may for example sell the intellectual property right or give it to another party. Note that if there are several creators, they will co-own the intellectual property right, if they don’t agree otherwise. Any decisions regarding intellectual property rights must be unanimous among the owners. Whereas creators always are humans, the owners of intellectual property rights may be humans or legal entities.

The creator of an intangible asset will always be credited as such, even if the ownership of the intellectual property right has been transferred. This principle is particularly prominent in copyright, where the moral rights always stay with the author. The moral rights give the author the right to claim authorship and the right to object to any offensive or derogatory action in relation to the work.

The owner of an intellectual property right may allow others to use the concerned intangible asset under certain conditions; for example for a limited time, on a limited market, in a limited manner and for an economical compensation or royalty. Such agreements, allowing others to use the right but not transferring the ownership, is usually called licensing.

Employments and intellectual property rights

Employment contracts often imply transferral of intellectual property rights from the employee to the employer. Furthermore, the act respecting the right to the inventions of employees (Lagen om rätten till arbetstagares uppfinningar) contains provisions regarding transferral of the right to patentable inventions from the employee to the employer. However, article 1 of said act exempts teachers from the provisions. This is called the teacher’s exemption or the professor’s privilege (lärarundantaget). The teacher’s exemption is applicable for patentable inventions created by teachers and researchers employed at Swedish universities and is therefore relevant for PhD students to the extent that they are employed.

Most Swedish universities apply the teacher’s exemption for other intellectual property rights than patents, especially for copyright. Such exemption does not come from legislation but from practice. The copyright act explicitly states that copyright in a computer program created by an employee as a part of his or her tasks or following instructions by the employer is transferred to the employer (article 40a). Hence, the copyright legislation concerning computer programs appears to conflict with the practice of the teacher’s exemption for copyright. Different Swedish universities and trade unions have different approaches to that conflict. Please consult your local trade union, legal office and university policies regarding the information that is relevant for you.

Intellectual Property Rights in summary

Follow the link below for a summary of the fundamentals of patents, trademarks, registered designs, and copyright. We refer to the legal text for details. Contact PRV’s customer support if you have any questions and visit prv.se for more information, digital training modules, access to intellectual property rights databases, and more.

Intellectual Property Rights in summary