Pantent Infringement Determination Research

Patent infringement determination is the core issue in patent infringement disputes and also the complex problem in the practice of resolution of patent disputes. There exist many problems in China’s patent infringement determination such as the non-uniform patent claim interpretation criteria and determination methods, the doctrine of equivalents being too abstract and too much discretion power of judges etc. So there is an urgent need to make systematic study of patent infringement determination on the basis of referring legislative and judicial experiences about patent infringement determination of other countries and making in-depth induction and summary of practical experiences in China’s patent infringement determination. This thesis attempts to make a systematic study of patent infringement determination.By adopting the methods such as the historical analysis, comparative reseach, case analysis as well as technical analysis etc., this thesis focuses its study on the problems of judicial practice of China’s patent infringement determination, the object of patent infringement determination, the basis on which the determination of patent infringemetn is made, the methods by which the determination of patent infringemetn is made and the improvement of the system of patent infringement determination. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part includes the introduction and first chapter with the introduction summarizing the subject, the signicicance and the methods of the study as well as the foreign and domestic research status and the first chapter defining the meaning of patent infringement determinaion and describing its characteristics and the problems in judicial practice of patent infringement determination. The fifth chapter. This part makes a more in-depth and detailed study and analysis of the object of patent infringement determination, the basis on which the determination of patent infringemetn is made, the methods by which the determination of patent infringemetn is made. Based on the study result and the real problems of China’s patent infringement determination, the thesis put forward some constructive and valuable suggestions for the building of China’s system of patent infringement determination. The last part is the conclusion which is the summary of the thesis. The specific contents of this thesis are as follows:Chapter I: Basic theroy of patent infringement determination. This Chapter focuses on the study of the definition and characteristics of patent infrinement determination as well as its role in patent system and the problems of China’s patent infringement determination. Patent infringement determination, as it contains the settlement of legal issues, technical issues etc., is a difficult judicial problem generally achnowledged by the countries in which the patent system is implemented. Compared with the determination of traditional civil infringement, patent infringement determination has the following characteristics: embodying the balance of interests, subject to subjectivity and policy, presuming the validity of patent, only comparing abstract technical elements and following a series of procedures and methods. Patent infringement determination plays an important role in patent system, it precisely defines the extent of patent protection for the patentee, demarcates the limit of patent rights for banning the public to use patent without the authorization of patentee and reflects the national patent development strategy and patent legislative aim. In the third section of this chapter, some problems concerning the system of claim interpretation, application of the doctrine of equivelents and reasonable limitations on its application are analyzed.Chapter II: Object of patent infringement determination. This Chapter mainly discusses the object of patent infringement determination——the direct patent infringement. At first, it makes a detailed analysis of the meaning and characteristics of patent infringement, and then, focuses on the analysis and research of the meaning of direct patent infringement and the similarities and differences between direct patent infringement and indirect patent infringement. The differences are mainly reflected in the following aspects: the subjective intent of the actor, the object of the infringement, the ways of infringing the patent and tort liability.The relationship between the direct and indirect patent infringement is that, under normal circumstances, the determination of indirect patent infringement must be based on the occurrence of direct patent infringement.Chapter III: Basis of the determination of patent infringement. This chapter makes a detailed comprehensive discuss of the basis of patent infringement determination——the extent of patent protection. The extent of patent protection is defined through the claims of patent and relevant evidences. First, this chapter first describes patent protection boundaries which are identified through properly interpreted claims of patent. Second, it discusses the basic theory of patent claims and it holds that, according to the provisions of patent law home and abroad, patent claims are the basis for determining the extent of patent protection and also the main basis for determining patent infringement. Meanwhile, in order to accurately define the contents and protection extent of claims, the third section of this chapter makes a comprehensive analysis of claim interpretation which including the analysis of the meaning of claim interpretation and its role in determining the extent of patent protection as well as the interpreter, evidences, principles and specific rules for claim interpretation. According to the results of the research and analysis, in order to accurately interprete patent claims and determine the clear extent of patent protection, the court must interprete the claims from the perspective of the person having ordinary skill in the art. The claim interpretation must be made by taking claims as the basic evidences and by referring evidentiary sources such as specification, drawings, procecution history, dictionaries and other supporting evidences. At the same, while interpreting the claims, the court must also follow certain principles and specific rules to guide its claim interpretation.Chapter IV: Methods of patent infingement determination. This chapter discusses in all aspects the methods of determining the patent infringement——“the doctrine of literal infringement”and“the doctrine of equivalents”. The first section of this chapter discusses in detail the standard of determining the“literal infringement”and analyzes the types of“literal infringement”. In the last part of this section, the“Redundant Principle”and its“existance and abolition”are analyzed comprehensively. The second section of this chapter makes an all-round research of the basic theroy of the doctrine of equivalents,the theory and system of reasonable limitations on the application of the doctrine of equivelents. First, this section makes a comprehensive study and analysis of the the legislative provisions and judicial experiences about the doctrine of equivalents in some countries such as America, Germany and Japan etc. Moreover, the basic theroy of the application of the doctrine of equivalents is discussed in detailed from the following aspects: the need to apply the doctrine of equivalents; the determination of equivalent technical limitations; the time to determine the equivalence and the the two sides of the doctrine of equivalents. The last section of this chapter makes an all-round analysis of the theory and legal system of the reasonable limitations on the application of the doctrine of equivalents in the determination of patent infringement from the aspects of all-limitations rule, prosecution history estoppel, prior art, public dedication rule and vitiation of claim limitations. According to the results of research in this chapter, the author thinks that the doctrine of equivalents is the primary method to determine patent infringement and its reasonable application can balance the interest between the patentee and the public, by giving the patentee practical and effective protection, but without prejudicing the public interest. At same time, because there are no many“literal infringements”, it must be a tendency that many countries will continue to apply the doctrine of equivalents to determine the patent infringement, but its application will also be subject to stricter limitations.Chapter V: Perfect system of patent infrigement determination for China. In this chapter, learning from foreign advanced legislative system and judicial experiences of patent infringement determination and taking into account China’s current problems of patent infringement determination, the author makes some useful proposals for the building of perfect system of patent infringement determination. This thesis emphasizes that, in order to build a perfect system of patent infringement determination, China must adhere to this guideline, that is, China’s legislation and judicial practice for patent infringement determination must conform to the prevailing international rules of patent infringement determination and be suitable for China’s scientific and technological development level. By following the prevailing international rules of patent infringement determination, undertaking corresponding international obligations and taking into account China’s current situation of patent infringement determination, China should make its system of patent infringement determination more perfect legislatively and judicially, especially in the system of claim interpretation and its concrete rules and the application of doctrine of equivalents and the reasonable limitations on its applicaion in patent infringement determination.In the conclusion, the thesis holds: the patent infringement determination is characterized by embodying the balance of interests, subjecting to subjectivity and policy, presuming the validity of patent, only comparing abstract technical elements and following a series of procedures and methods. Patent infringement determination can precisely define the extent of patent protection for the patentee, demarcate the limit of patent rights for banning the public to use patent without the authorization of patentee and reflect the national patent development strategy and patent legislative aim. There exist many problems in China’s patent infringement determination such as the non-uniform patent claim interpretation criteria and determination methods, the doctrine of equivalents being too abstract and too much discretion power of judges etc. In order to accurately interprete patent claims and determine the clear extent of patent protection, the court must interprete the claims from the perspective of the person having ordinary skill in the art. The claim interpretation must be made by taking claims as the basic evidences and by referring evidentiary sources such as specification, drawings, procecution history, dictionaries and other supporting evidences. At the same, while interpreting the claims, the court must also follow certain principles and specific rules to guide its claim interpretation. The reasonable application of the doctrine of equivalents in patent infringement determination can balance the interest between the patentee and the public. At same time, because there are no many“literal infringements”, it must be a tendency that many countries will continue to apply the doctrine of equivalents to determine the patent infringement, but its application will also be subject to stricter limitations. In order to build a perfect system of patent infringement determination, China must adhere to this guideline, that is, China’s legislation and judicial practice for patent infringement determination must conform to the prevailing international rules of patent infringement determination and be suitable for China’s scientific and technological development level. China should make her system of patent infringement determination more perfect legislatively and judicially, especially in the system of claim interpretation and its concrete rules and the application of doctrine of equivalents and the reasonable limitations on its applicaion in patent infringement determination.