On The Principle Of Equal Infringement In Patent Infringement Judgment

The doctrine of equivalents refers to the allegedly infringing products or methods do not fall into the scope of protection of the literal meaning of the contrasting patent, but if the allegedly infringing products or methods are same with the contrasting patent’s products or methods in the essence, it should also affirm that the infringement is established. The principle is the important doctrine to determine whether the infringement is established. But China is not putting this doctrine in the patent law. It only occurs in several provisions of the law of the Supreme People’s Court. Also, due to no uniform standards of the application of the doctrine, it will also affect judicial practice to determine the scope of patent protection.Due to the theory of the doctrine of equivalents is mixed, supporters argue that this doctrine can make up for the lack of the same doctrine arising from the weak protection of patent rights, which contributes to the settlement of claims interpretation which is bound to the text or wording of the problem caused by the framework. Protesters are of the view that because of the complex theory of the doctrine of equivalents, applicable standards are not unified, and the law is more abstract, it would bring more difficult to understand the scope of patent protection. Meanwhile, the doctrine of equivalents ‘made by United States’ falls into decay and, therefore, some scholars don’t support the doctrine of future development in China. Despite the clear legal provisions of the doctrine of equivalents, but in practice, the application of the doctrine of equivalents still causes people’s worry.Some scholars think that it mainly inheres in the aspects of the dilemma of legislative and judicial. For this point of view, first of all, what it reflect is true, but the reason of this phenomenon is not belonged to the doctrine of equivalents. The reason why there is such misunderstanding is that the core value of the doctrine of equivalents is not clear.Based on the origin of the doctrine of equivalents, the concept and value, analysis demonstrates that the doctrine is in the important role of judging the equivalence infringement cases.Also, because of the misunderstanding of the doctrine of equivalents leads to unreasonable expansion of the scope of patent protection. In order to limit such an unreasonable expansion. the doctrine of prosecution history estoppel, the defense of prior art and the reverse doctrine occur. When it establishes the equivalence infringement standards, it should be based on criticizing the corresponding technical characteristics and holism. It confirmed the effect of all the technical characteristics of rules to judge the equivalence infringement action. Finally, the rules of the doctrine of equivalents should be applied to the patentee to deal with the patent infrigement proceedings.