On The Doctrine Of Equivalents In Patent Infringement

The determination of patent infringement is always a problem in the judicial practice field. The determination of patent infringement is different from the determination of the contract dispute. The contract has corresponding contract terms, and can be easier to operate. While the determination of patent infringement need to be compared with the claims. But there are many situations under which the scheme of the accused products is not the same to the claims. And it is difficult to judge that to what degree the accused product is infringement or to what degree the accused product is not. For it is concerning not only law of equity but also technology. When the determination of patent infringement becomes more and more difficult and complex, the doctrine of equivalents(DOE) gives the judge a good law foundation, which becomes a basic doctrine used most frequently in the determination of patent infringement. The determination of infringement in our country consults the doctrine of infringement determination in America to high degree. DOE develops very richly now. Because patent infringement relates closely to the development of the technology, it will continually face the challenge produced by the fast technology development. So we need to directly consult DOE existing in the other developed countries presently to help us solve the problem of patent infringement more effectively, but it is more important to study the basic law theories behind DOE which make the DOE systems develop and perfect through studying the history of DOE. This is the right way to have a full use of DOE in our judicial practice field, and to let it have life and develop healthily in our nation.In the thesis DOE system is systematically studied, the contents include five parts. The first is the preface. It summarizes the present study situations about DOE, and introduces the purpose, means and value of the thesis. The second is the introduction of DOE. It introduces the concept of DOE and other limited doctrines closely related with DOE, then historically explains and analyzes birth of DOE and its development in detail. The third is the basic theories about DOE. It generalizes the law theories hid in DOE on the base of the second part, and uses these theories to study the related systems about DOE. The fourth is the practice of DOE. In this part the author synthesizes all the system of DOE, and gives a set ofprocedure for practice use. Then he analyses some problems in detail on the base of cases. The fifth is thought on legislation and administration of justice. It introduces the present situation about legislation and administration about DOE, and gives several pieces of advice to improve our DOE system on base of research in the previous contents.