Study On The Application Of The Exhaustion Doctrine In The Recycling Of Design Patent Products

By granting a fixed-term patent protection in exchange for the disclosure of invention and creation content,the patent system not only protects the legal advantage of patent holders,but also promotes the application and promotion of technology,ensuring the innovation and development of national science and technology.In the sales process of patented products,both patent right and real right are included in the same product.The patentee hopes to control the product through the exclusive features of patent right so as to safeguard his maximum interests,while the real right holder hopes to obtain interests without interference of the patentee through the free circulation of the product.In order to balance the conflict between the real right holder and the patentee and further promote the development of free trade,most countries adopt the exhaustion of rights system to restrict the patent right to better realize the fundamental purpose of the patent system.Remanufacturing is a way of production style that uses specialized technology and achieves sustainable development with industrial production methods.It manufactures new products based on the original products by repairing and modifying the scrapped products and their parts.In the "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Circular Economy" in 2005,the State Council of China listed remanufacturing as one of the key tasks in the development of circular economy.In the release of "Made in China 2025" in 2015,it was again clearly proposed to vigorously develop the remanufacturing industry.In recent years,remanufacturing companies have caused many patent infringement cases on the issue of the reuse of design patent products.In the case,the remanufacturing company recycles the product of the design patent right of others as a package,and resells it after loading its own product.The party who acted as recovery and reuse of design patented products all proposed the exhaustion of rights as an infringement defense.However,several high courts in China have made very different judgments,and there is no unified conclusion so far.This paper divides the related cases into two types: the applicable rights exhaustion principle and the non-applicable rights exhaustion principle.Then it selects typical cases to introduce,analyzes the problems existing in the existing judgments from the two aspects of the nature of the recycling behavior and the application of the principle of exhaustion of rights.The view of the principle of exhaustion of rights should be applied,and further suggestions for improving relevant systems in China should be proposed.The body of the contents of this paper consists of four parts:The first part is the introduction of related cases.Firstly,it analyzes the judgments of several old bottled new wine cases in China.Secondly,it introduces the typical cases that apply the exhaustion principle and the typical cases that do not apply the exhaustion principle,that is,the case of Ju aijun and the case of Henan Weixue Beer.The controversial focus is drawn through the comparison of the reasons and conclusions of the judgment.The second part is the identification of the nature of recycling behavior.Firstly,it lists the legal provisions for recycling and recycling.Secondly,it starts from both the extraterritorial and domestic cases.On the one hand,it expounds the identification of the extraterritorial case on the recycling of patented products,that is the distinction between repair and re-engineering.On the other hand,it specifically analyzes the recognition of the recycling and re-use behaviors in our courts,that is the disguised manufacturing viewpoints proposed in China's judicial practice and its irrationalities.The third part is the application of the principle of exhaustion.Firstly,it introduces the purpose and applicable conditions of the principle of exhaustion.Secondly,it analyzes the application of the principle of exhaustion in existing cases and pointing out problems.Finally,the application of the principle of exhaustion should be analyzed from the perspective of balance of interests.Then put forward the view that the principle of exhaustion should be directly applied in accordance with the purpose of legislation,and other damages can be resolved by special laws.The fourth part gives relevant suggestions.The first is the specific improvement of the exhaustion clause of the patent law rights.The second is the improvement of the applicable of the principle of exhaustion in the recycling of design patents case.The third is to provide some suggestions for the remanufacturing enterprises to recycle and redesign the patented products according to the previous analysis.