Auniversity employee is any person who has an employment relationship with the university. This includes university lecturers and other academic staff as well as all other employees (including students).

Anemployee invention is any invention that has arisen from the official duties of the employee; in the case of scientists, this includes in particular the results of third-party funded research. Inventions that are essentially based on experience or work from the official activity are also service inventions; under this condition, research work in secondary employment also leads to service inventions.

The invention disclosure must be submitted to the Department for Research and Technology Transfer, tel. 0441/798-4932, on a special form immediately after the invention has been made.

The following documents must be enclosed with the invention disclosure:

• Description of the invention incl. sketches/drawings
• Declaration by the supervisor(s), which should serve as a basis for assessing the legal and contractual framework conditions.

Particular emphasis should be placed in the description on "the essential novelty" with which a previously unsolved problem can be solved. The notification documents should also enable the university to assess whether the invention is actually a service invention and, if so, whether it intends to utilise it. The scope of the documents describing the invention must be such that a non-specialist can form an accurate picture. As with a patent application, the content should be divided into a technical problem and a technical solution.

Special regulation for scientific publications that disclose an invention:

Publications that disclose an invention must be reported to the university management in good time, usually two months in advance, together with an invention disclosure. This independent duty to inform gives the university the opportunity to file a (precautionary) application for industrial property rights. Publication can take place after the two-month period has expired.

The declaration of utilisation of the service invention by the university must be submitted no later than four months after receipt of the complete invention disclosure. Even after utilisation by the university, the university inventors retain a non-exclusive right to use their service invention in the context of their teaching and research activities.

Should the possibility of utilisation prove to be futile, the rights will be transferred back to the inventor.

In the event of successful exploitation, the inventor is entitled to an inventor's fee amounting to 30% of the exploitation income. Several inventors share the inventor's remuneration. This means that inventors from the scientific sector are in a much better position than other service inventors.