Research On The Standards Of Damages In Patent Infringement

The core mission about the protection of patentee's legitimate rights and interests is the certain standard of the confirmation of the compensation for patent infringement damages.Although the current patent law of our country makes detailed provisions on the criteria for determining the amount of damages for patent infringement as well as the standards for the calculation method based,the problem of unequal compensation amount faced by the patentee in judicial practice has not been solved.This dissertation starts with the study on the standards about determination of the amount of patent infringement damages and draws problems from the current legislative situation and the judicial practice in our country,and states the suggestions of the methods about improving the standards of determining the amount of damages for patent infringement in China by introducing advanced standards in legislation and judicial practice on the determination of the amount of compensation on the patent infringement damages of the Anglo-American law countries and the continental law.This dissertation is divided in four parts:The first part mainly introduces the meaning and nature of compensation for damages caused by patent infringement.Compensation for damages caused by patent infringement refers to the civil liability for the losses that the infringer should bear as a result of the patent infringement.The nature of damages caused by patent infringement is divided into punitive damages and compensatory damages,the amount of compensation is determined differently by them,and the nature of damages caused by patent infringement in China is compensatory damages.There four standards for determining the amount of patent infringement damages in China,they are the actual losses of the patentee,earnings by infringement,reasonable multiples of patent licensing fees and statutory compensation.The second part gives statements about the current status and problems of the standards for the determination on the amount of compensation on patent infringement damages in China.According to the legislative and judicial practice of determination on the amount of compensation of patent infringement damages in China,relevant problems are stated as follows:the standards of the actual losses of patentees are unscientific,the application of the technology apportion rules is lack of standardization,the scope of application on patent licensing fees is too narrow and the application of statutory compensation is severely enlarged.The third part is the use of reference based on the international experiences of the determination on the amount of compensation of patent infringement damages.The categories of determining standards for on the amount of compensation on patent infringement damages in the Anglo-American legal system mainly include:profit loss calculations,reasonable licensing fees,applicable rules for technology sharing rules,illegal profits of infringers,patent licensing fees,etc.;The categories of determining standards for on the amount of compensation on patent infringement damages in the continental legal system mainly include:the rules of distribution of evidential burden under the determination of lost benefit,the equivalent amount of implementation,discretionary compensation,loss of profits,illegal profits of infringers,licensing fees,etc.The above-mentioned standards for determining the amount of damages for patent infringement are more scientific and operational from the aspect of legislation and judicial practice,and there is considerable reference value for China.The fourth part gives pertinence suggestions on improvement of determining stands of the amount of compensation on patent infringement damages.Those suggestions are stated as follows:the introduction of the concept of marginal profit and the idea of price erosion,the proof standard for improving the causality of actual losses of patent holders,clarifying the method of the application of the technology sharing rules,the establishment of an expert-type jury team,expanding the scope of application of patent licensing fees,confirming the applying rules of patent licensing fees,limiting the scope of the application of statutory compensation as well as subdividing the amount of statutory compensation.