If someone you hire through an EOR invents something, does your company own it?

Summary

If the EOR's paperwork works as written, yes, but the rights reach you in two handoffs. The employee assigns them to the EOR's local entity under the employment agreement, and the EOR assigns them to you under its terms of service; Remote and Deel both describe it this way. Local law caps the first handoff: in the UK, an invention made outside an employee's duties belongs to the employee, and a contract term that cuts into that right cannot be enforced against them.

Two handoffs, and you sign only one

Deel's help center puts it in one line: "Deel assigns all intellectual property created under the employment agreement to itself, and then assigns that IP to the client in the Terms & Conditions." Remote says the same about its own contracts. The employment agreement moves IP rights from the employee to Remote, and the Terms of Service move them on to the client. Remote adds that local experts drafted the clauses and an external law firm certified the process.

Remote's product page explains why the first step holds. It rests on local law, "because IP produced in the course of employment typically transfers automatically to the legal employer," and on IP documents signed by the employee and the Remote local entity. You are a party to neither. Your claim runs through the contract you signed with the EOR.

What UK patent law decides first

The Patents Act 1977 sets the boundary no employment contract can move:

• Section 39(1). An invention belongs to the employer if it was made in the course of the employee's normal duties, or duties specifically assigned, where an invention "might reasonably be expected" to result. It also belongs to the employer if the employee had "a special obligation to further the interests of the employer's undertaking."
• Section 39(2). "Any other invention made by an employee shall, as between him and his employer, be taken for those purposes to belong to the employee."
• Section 42. A contract term that "diminishes the employee's rights in inventions" is unenforceable against the employee to that extent. Confidentiality duties are untouched.
• Section 40. If an employer-owned invention is patented and is "of outstanding benefit to the employer," a court or the comptroller may award the employee compensation.

Picture a developer in London who builds something unrelated to her job over a weekend. A broad IP clause in the EOR's contract does not bring that invention to the EOR, so there is nothing for the second handoff to pass to you.

The terms you can't renegotiate

Remote lists IP among the parts of its employment agreement that clients cannot change. The standard provisions are there so your company owns employee-created work, and Remote says they "should not be removed or weakened." Naming the client in the contract is off the table too, since in some countries it "creates co-employment risk and is not permitted." The Terms of Service are closed to redlines. What Remote offers in exchange is a higher liability cap, which it calls a supercap, on IP, data protection, and confidentiality, where the cap used to be 12 months. Clients can still sign an NDA directly with the employee.

Remote also claims that "some global employment providers pass your IP to their partners." That is a sales point, but the mechanics behind it are plain: when a partner's local entity signs the employment contract, the first handoff goes to the partner.

Sources

• https://help.letsdeel.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4407745339281-EOR-Terms-Explained-WOF-IPP-and-more
• https://support.remote.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407329311245-How-does-Remote-handle-non-disclosure-agreements-NDAs-and-intellectual-property-IP
• https://remote.com/why-remote/ip-protection
• https://support.remote.com/hc/en-us/articles/39266991211149-Understanding-Remote-s-Employment-Agreements
• https://support.remote.com/hc/en-us/articles/5927583164173-Understanding-Remote-s-Terms-of-Service-Contract
• https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/37/section/39
• https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/37/section/40
• https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/37/section/42

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