Patents Research In National Mandatory Technical Standards

National mandatory technical standards, as an important part of technical standards, are documents with guiding functions, which are safeguarded by national force and related to people’s life and property safety, and they stipulate specific technical requirements and details of the technical program. The combination of these technical standards with patent right is the inevitable result of the development of science technology and the society. However, due to related incomplete patent system, patent disputes caused by the implementation of national mandatory technical standards occur occasionally.Given this, this article, in line with the purpose to balance the interests of standardization organization, patentee, and standard executor, studies the relationship between national mandatory technical standards and patent rights. The article is divided into four parts:the first part is the combination of mandatory technical standards and patents, which sketches out the concept and types of mandatory technical standards. It explains the inevitable combination of mandatory technical standards with patents from aspects of mandatory technical standards’dependence on patent rights, and its promotion of patentee, and it also analyzes the combination form of mandatory technical standards with patents and its impact; the second part is mandatory technical standards in the US and Europe and its inspiration. It focus on American and European mandatory technical standards system, arranges and analyzes contained patent policy, and summarizes inspirations to China when taking into consideration of the particularity of China’s standards system; the third part combines with the latest published "Patent-Related Regulations in National Standards (Temporary)" by National Standardization Management Committee and the State Intellectual Property Office on December 19,2013, summarizes the status and defects of patent regulations in China’s national mandatory technical standards, including:patent technology exclusion, uncertainty of FRAND licensing principles, lack of disposal methods when without permission notice, uncertainty of the status of standardization organization in patent licensing negotiation, and imperfection of patent dispute settlement mechanism after inclusion of patent in mandatory technical standards; the fourth part combines advanced experience at home and abroad with China’s national conditions, proposes targeted suggestions, including the establishing system to include essential patents in mandatory technical standards, defining connotation and implementation measures of FRAND principles, applying compulsory licensing when without license statement, defining the status of standardization organization, and improving patent dispute settlement mechanisms after inclusion of patent in mandatory technical standards.