Studies On Indirect Infringement Of Patent

Patent right is a restrictive, legal and exclusive right granted to right owners by law. Its acquisition is based on the publication of the technical scheme by right owners. But because the right owner has relatively weak control over the patent right due to the immateriality of it, the publication makes the patent right exposed to potential infringement all the time. Patent right owners can only protect their legal rights by reference to patent law, when infringement arises, so in order to enhance their legal interests, the patent law is required to clear the rules which test the acts of patent right infringement and perfect the relief theory. Besides the protection of patent right is directly related to the development of science and technology which is realized by inspiriting the invention of the originators through guarantying their monopoly.As we all know, the regulation on direct infringement which is an important part of patent law is a substantial means to protect patent right owners. By contrast, indirect infringement is another significant way to relieve patent right owners. In many countries where the patent law is mature, the doctrine of indirect infringement has developed well, which reflects these countries attach much importance to the legal interests of patent right owners for the purpose of the development of science and technology as well as incensement of social wealth by inspiring and boosting invention. However, the Chinese Patent Law only includes rules controlling direct infringement, but no doctrine of indirect infringement, so the civil law treats the indirect infringement as joint tort. Along with Chinese progress of science and technology, people demands much high protection of the patent right, so does the developed countries, after the entry of WTO of China. Therefore, China has to introduce the doctrine of indirect infringement into the Patent Law.This paper tries to draw a clear line to test the acts of indirect infringement of patent by studies on the concept,origin, existence, and other countries'rules of it. At the same time the paper tries to list the common types of indirect infringement. It is expected that this paper will be helpful to the Chinese legislation of indirect infringement of patent.