On The Theory Of Patent Rights Limitation

Patent rights limitation is used to limit both the content and exercise of right onthe basis of the protection of patentees’ legal interest. It regulates the abuse of patentrights in competition, coordinates the private and public interests, and promotes theinterrelationship between innovation and dissemination. Previous researchers studythe limitation of patent rights mainly from a macro perspective and have made greatachievements, but they neglect the characteristics of patent rights itself and its system.It follows that their introspection on the validity, rationality and value pursuit ofpatent rights limitation is inadequate. Nowadays, China begins to implement theintellectual property strategy. Therefore, against this background, it’s theoretically andpractically significant to conduct a systematic and detailed study of patent rightslimitation in the light of idiosyncrasies of patent rights and its system.Due to both three revolutions of science and technology and changing of socialthought, patent rights has undergone the transformation from privilege to privateright and then to supremacy. Therefore, the institutional structure and the theoreticalfoundation of patent rights limitation are changing all the time. In the firsttransformation, the theory of natural rights and the theory of social contract justifiedthe constraints on feudal privileges in the patent field. In the second transformation,patent system became a tool to encourage innovation and enhance social welfare, forutilitarianism appeared. As a consequence, patent rights limitation were used to limitthe abuse of private right, protect the freedom of trade, and advance thecommercialization of new technology. In the third transformation, patent rights turnedfrom private right to supremacy, which led to the questioning of the patent system andposed a new problem for the research in patent rights limitation.Based on the fact that patent right is property right in nature, validity of patentrights limitation is rooted in the fact that these limitations are a necessary institutionalarrangement which lays emphasis on the congruence between the design and the goalof patent system,on the uniformity of morality and justice of patent law and on theconsistency between objectivity and subjectivity of patent rights. The justification ofpatent rights limitation lies in the clarification of its value pursuit and the supply oftheoretical foundation for patent system which need get out of a dilemma betweenvalue and morality.A micro way to address the problem of intellectual supremacy is to establish a complete system of patent rights s limitation to prevent transnational corporationsfrom abusing their patent rights. The author’s view is that the system of patent rightslimitation should be constructed from three levels–the market order, the guarantee ofhuman rights and the innovation of science and technology-to maintain dynamicbalance of social multi-values. In the first level, this system plays an important role inlimiting the abuse of patent rights. In the second level, it gives priority to theguarantee of basic human rights to balance the interests between the patentees and thepublic. In the third level, it not only leads the spreading and sharing of knowledgebetween private and public departments, but also directs the innovation of science andtechnology towards a rational path.