Of The Supreme People's Court Interpretation Of The Functional Features Of The Invention Patent

Functional feature widely exists in invention applications of each field. In some cases, the functional feature is unavoidable. Since the Supreme People's Court's <Judicial Interpretation of Several Issues Concerning Application of Law to Trial of Cases of Dispute Arising from Patent Infringement> was implemented as of January 1, 2010, the interpretation methods about the functional feature in our country became contradictory: in examination period and right confirmation period, the functional feature will be explained as'cover all the implementing means that can achieve the function'according to'broad-interpretation'; while in patent infringement trial period, the functional feature will be explained as'cover the embodiments, of the patent description, and its equivalent'according to'narrow-interpretation'. The author of this article, compares and analyses the'broad-interpretation'and'narrow-interpretation'in theory and in practice, by analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of the current situation, referring to the experiences of other countries and organizations, and considering the actual conditions of our country, and then concludes that the'broad-interpretation'is more suitable for our country and will be more able to represent the value of patent system, benefit the practice of the patent examination period, the right confirmation period and the patent infringement trial period, and be easier for the general public to understand. Thus, the author of this article proposes that uniform'broad-interpretation'should be adopted in our country.