Intellectual Property Laws in Sweden

Professor's Privilege Law (lärarundantaget):

In 1949, a new principle was introduced in the Swedish Patent Act: “Teachers at universities, colleges or other establishments that belong to the system of education should not be treated as employees in the scope of this law” (SFS 1949:345: §1). In practice, the formulation meant that academic scholars were not subject to a new patent law which gave employers the intellectual property rights to inventions made by employees. Or in other words: a patent generated by academic research belonged to the scientist, not to the university. Today – the legislation is still in place – this exception for university scholars is known as the “professor’s privilege” or “teacher's exemption” and lärarundantaget in Swedish ...

• The Nomos of the University: Introducing the Professor's Privilege in 1940s Sweden, Pettersson I., Minerva. 2018;56(3):381-403. doi:10.1007/s11024-018-9348-2
• University entrepreneurship and professor privilege, Erika Färnstrand Damsgaard, Marie C. Thursby, Industrial and Corporate Change, Volume 22, Issue 1, February 2013, Pages 183–218, https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dts047