There is no "work for hire" applicable to consultants and contractors under French law and, generally, intellectual property rights must be specifically assigned or licensed to the engaging entity or remain vested in the consultant or contractor.
Ordinance No. 2021-1658 of 15 December 2021 introduced a devolution of rights arising from software or inventions made by a person who is neither an employee nor a public agent, to the private or public legal entity carrying out the research that hosts them. The Ordinance therefore creates an automatic devolution of economic rights to the host legal entity carrying out the research.
2 decrees dated August 11, 2023 have now -finally- specified this financial compensation:
For inventors who are not salaried nor public agents to the private or public legal entity carrying out the research that hosts them, the provisions relating to the financial contribution for patentable inventions are set out in Decree no. 2023-770 of August 11, 2023 relating to the procedures for the devolution of industrial property rights on assets obtained by inventors who are not salaried employees or public servants hosted by a legal entity carrying out research. It defines the calculation of the incentive bonus paid to such inventors.
For software authors who are not salaried, nor public agents to the public legal entity carrying out the research that hosts them, the Decree no. 2023-772 of August 11, 2023 organizes the devolution of their economic rights. It defines the rules governing profit-sharing for these authors when they have participated, alone or as co-authors, in the creation of software whose economic intellectual property rights have thus been vested in the public-sector legal entity whose permanent research staff are public-sector employees, and when these rights are exploited by this legal entity.