Study On The Principle Of Equivalents Of Patent Infringement

The purpose of the principle of equivalents is to balance the interests of patent holders and the public. In2001, China’s Supreme People’s Court through judicial interpretation of the form for the first time established the principle of equivalents. December21,2009, through a new judicial interpretation of China’s Supreme People’s Court further refine the interpretation of the principle of equivalents. In this interpretation, from a macro point of view, China’s Supreme People’s Court clarified the interpretation of the principle of the claims.From the microscopic point of view, China’s Supreme People’s Court detailed specific operating guidelines for claim construction. Nevertheless, the principle of equivalents in our country there are still shortcomings. For example, To examine the technical features equivalent from the point of view of the real meaning of inventive ideas are ignored; Foreseeable easiness standards are not uniform; Whether the existing defenses including creative review is not clear; and not the introduction of the reverse principle of equivalents. Therefore, Therefore, the comparison and analysis of our country and abroad about the differences and similarities between the principle of equivalents, will contribute to further improvement of the principle of equivalents.The criteria of the principle of equivalents are mainly used to limit the application of the principle of equivalents, and prevent the expansion of the scope of patent protection through the principle of equivalents to unreasonable. The criteria of the principle of equivalents include the content elements, method elements, the main body elements and time elements. Equivalent principle of restrictive rules includ principles of estoppel, donation rules as well as prior art defense. Rely on the analysis of the status of application of the principle of equivalents in the United States, Germany and China, from a balance between the interests of patent holders and the public point of view, this paper presents further improve our principle of equivalents Suggestions. For example, it should be from the point of view of the real meaning of the invention ideas to examine the technical characteristics of the equivalent: foreseeable easiness as well as prior art defense standards should be consistent with the "creative".