著者

木元 富夫

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.28, no.2, pp.1-30, 1993-07-30 (Released:2009-11-06)

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Werner Siemens (1816-92) not only built the greatest electric concern in Germany, he also concerned himself deeply with the enactment of the German Patent Law (1877). It is because he himself was an inventor-entrepreneur and recognized the significance of patents. He stated “the main reason of the rapid growth of our factories is that our products resulted mainly from our own inventions.” In his company, Siemens and Halske & Co., in 1873 an unprecedented controversy came about. That is, the upper engineer Hefner-Alteneck (1845-1904) who invented an epoch-making dynamo stated that he wanted to retire with the invention and set up his own company.At the time the whole German patent law had not been developed yet, and Prussian patent law was not complete, so the rights of employees concerning their inventions were not covered. How did Siemens cope with the situation? Siemens was opposed to Hefner's demand for his regisgnation because “even employeers' knowledge and skill is the property of the company, not to speak of employee-inventions.” However by only an old-fashioned patriarchic authoritarian approach he could not control his employees' loyality. In exchange for the concession of distributing profits, Siemens was able to prevent Hefner from starting his own business. After this trouble in Siemens & Co. every new employee had to sign the special agreement concerning employee inventions. This is an important case in history of business and technology because it was the earliest case of so-called employee-inventions.