Too Big to Pay? Supreme Court say: “No Way!”
Last week the Supreme Court ruled that an inventor, Professor Shanks, was entitled to compensation for an invention he devised while employed by Unilever in the 1980s. Such successful decisions are extremely rare (there is only one other case, Kelly and Chiu), and this is the first time that the Supreme Court has considered this corner of the Patents Act.The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the rulings of the lower courts and award £2m to Professor Shanks is a landmark decision that could pave the way for further successful claims.