A Study Of The Doctrine Of Equivalents In Judging Patent Infringement

In the patent infringement judgments doctrine of equivalent is a very important judgment principle.It originated in the United States and has a history of 200 years.With China's accession to the WTO and the scientific concept of development,China's increasing emphasis on scientific and technological innovation.In the case of patent infringement disputes,the same principle is playing a great role,but it is immature:both in theory and practice is far behind the actual needs.In this paper,the history of Origin of Doctrine of equivalent and restrictions on the same principle are discussed,combining with the typical case analysis about the applies of the Doctrine of equivalent,in order tO be able to present the same principles of our country's development and improvement to make some suggestions.The article is mainly divided into three parts:Introduction,Text and Conclusion.The Text of this article has five sections,as it follows:Section one:introduction of the patent infringement dispute case of WeiDiYa and RuiErTe,according to defenses of two parties,prosecution statements and court decisions,put forward the problems of doctrine of equivalent in the practical application process,and then come to analyze the doctrine of equivalent.Section two:the outline of doctrine of equivalent.It includes the concept and the history of the principle.First,it introduces the concept of doctrine of equivalent which was accepted by the world,as well as the concept which was given by The Supreme People's Court. Secondly,it comes to the process of establishing and the latest development of doctrine of equivalent.Section three:the application situation of doctrine of equivalent.It is divided into standard of judgment,condition of application,boundary of time and scope,and the understanding of Creative work.Section four:restriction of doctrine of equivalent.It contains the definitions and application situations of principles of prosecution estoppel,principle of prior art counterplead and Public Dedication Doctrine.These principles and doctrine of equivalent can bring adequate and appropriate legal protection to the patentee.The principle of prosecution history estoppel is derived from the civil law principle of good faith,is a proprietary restriction principle of doctrine of equivalent;plea for the public to know the principles of technology, the article focuses on its practical application in a few difficult issues,and proposed a their views known to the public defense of the principles of the present technology does not belong to the scope of patent protection for the patentee's technical characteristics of the public a fair return;the principle of surplus designated by the Patent Law of China's unique,patent written in our country is not high levels of the circumstances,has its own value,but should be used with caution;donation rules and predictable rules are equivalent to the principle of the United States the principle of up-to-date restrictions,this paper argues that China's patent in the present theory is also not very mature foreseeable circumstances not conducive to the patent rules development,may hinder the enthusiasm of technological innovation,which should not apply;and donated a good rule is to limit equivalent to the principle of the method,according to China's social development status,the principle is the need for more in-depth research and applicationSection five:improvement of doctrine of equivalent in our country.It is imperfect of the doctrine of equivalent both in legislation and practice,several pieces of advices is proposed to improve the doctrine of equivalent system in our country.