Cooperation with a university from 1 September 2026: inventions and works of researchers belong to them unless agreed otherwise with the institution

A company developing a new material, medicine or device together with a public higher education institution or an institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences has until now generally proceeded on a simple assumption: whatever the university’s employees create in the course of their work belongs to the university, and it is therefore the university one must deal with. From 1 September 2026 that no longer holds without more. Act No. 300/2025 Coll., the new Higher Education Act, amended the Patent Act, the Utility Models Act and the Copyright Act.

What has changed

The general rule for employee inventions remains: where an employee creates one in the performance of work duties, the right to the solution belongs to the employer unless otherwise agreed (Section 11(1) of Act No. 435/2001 Coll.). For public higher education institutions and the Slovak Academy of Sciences, however, an exception has been added:

The right to a solution for an invention created by an employee of a public higher education institution or an employee of the Slovak Academy of Sciences or of its organisation (hereinafter the “Slovak Academy of Sciences”) in the performance of that employee’s work duties belongs to the employee unless otherwise agreed; subsections (1) to (5) shall not apply.

— Section 11(11) of Act No. 435/2001 Coll. (unofficial English translation)

The same rule applies to technical solutions protected by a utility model (Section 11(11) of Act No. 517/2007 Coll.). The Copyright Act transposes it to works: rights to a work created by an employee of a public higher education institution or of the Academy in the performance of work duties belong to that employee unless otherwise agreed, and the rules on the exercise of economic rights by the employer do not apply (Section 90(10) of Act No. 185/2015 Coll.). Computer programs are an exception, to which this rule does not apply (Section 89(8)); software written at a university therefore remains under the ordinary employee-work regime.

There is also a new express rule for students. An invention created by a student in the performance of study duties belongs to the student unless otherwise agreed (Section 11a of the Patent Act). In projects staffed by doctoral or diploma students, this carries the same significance as the rule for employees.

What this means for a company

A university can transfer or license to a company only what it holds itself. If it has not agreed otherwise with its researcher, it does not hold the right to the solution for that researcher’s invention, and a cooperation agreement signed with the university alone may not secure the company what it is paying for. The risk becomes apparent late, typically on filing a patent application, on an investor’s entry or during an intellectual property review before a sale of the company.

The Act leaves room for a different arrangement. Where an employee agrees that the right belongs elsewhere, the employee is entitled to reasonable remuneration under the rules on employee inventions. The Act does not expressly state the form such an arrangement must take; the safe course is a written individual arrangement with the employee, rather than a general internal regulation alone. An agreement transferring the right to a solution must be in writing, failing which it is invalid (Section 12(3) of the Patent Act).

Even under the exception, the university and the Academy retain certain rights and duties: they may use the invention to promote themselves, the invention or the inventor, and must keep it confidential until it is published. As regards works, they may also use the work in teaching and research where they derive no financial benefit from it. The agreement with the company should allow for these entitlements, so that promotion does not run ahead of the filing of an application.

Which results the change concerns

The transitional provisions of both the Patent Act and the Copyright Act provide that the creation of legal relationships and claims arising up to 31 August 2026 are assessed under the previous rules (Section 85ac of the Patent Act, Section 190d of the Copyright Act). For results created before that date it is therefore necessary to check whether and how the university, as employer, acquired rights to them under the rules then in force. The assessment is more complex for inventions created shortly before 1 September 2026, where the period for asserting the right was still running; the Act does not address that case separately. For projects spanning that date, it is sensible to date and record results on an ongoing basis.

The exception applies only under Slovak law. In cooperation with a Czech university, Czech law applies, which in Section 9 of Act No. 527/1990 Sb. continues to proceed on the basis that the right to a patent for an employee’s invention passes to the employer unless the contract provides otherwise. Where the project is financed by Czech public support, further rules are added, which are examined in our answer on research results funded by a Czech grant.

How to structure the agreement

• Map who actually creates on the project: university employees, students, your own employees, external contractors.
• Ask the university for a representation that it holds agreements with its employees and students in respect of the results, and for key individuals consider a tripartite agreement directly with the researcher.
• Distinguish between inventions, software and other works; each has a different regime and a different route by which the company acquires rights.
• Regulate the sequence of publication and application filing, so that neither publication nor promotion destroys novelty.

How the rules on employee inventions apply within your own company is explained in our answer on an employee’s invention in a joint project. We prepare agreements with a university or consortium, including arrangements with researchers, under our research and development collaboration agreement service, and licences to works and software under our copyright and licensing service.