How to exercise patent rights and safeguard rights and interests

A long time ago, my country's patent rights were infringed on a large scale, resulting in a lot of patent losses and infringements; however, there are still many, but the situation has improved. Patent rights protection is a relatively complicated process. This phenomenon still exists no matter how regulated it is. So how to exercise patent rights to safeguard rights and interests? Let the editor of Legal Savior Network explain it to you in detail below.

How to exercise patent rights to safeguard rights and interests

Patent rights are exclusive rights granted to applicants by administrative agencies for a certain invention. This exclusivity is reflected in: any Without the permission of the patentee, no unit or individual may exploit its patent, that is, it may not manufacture, use, offer for sale, sell, or import its patented products or use its patented methods for production and business purposes. When the patentee exercises its rights, it can be achieved through private remedies or public remedies. As for the former, it can send an infringement warning letter by itself or by entrusting a lawyer. If it resorts to public remedies, it can Handle infringement disputes by requesting administrative agencies or filing patent infringement lawsuits in court. As can be seen from the above methods, patentees in a strong position have many ways to realize their rights. Does that mean that patentees can exercise their rights at will? Of course not, the law gives civil subjects a right At the same time, it will also make him assume corresponding obligations, and the same is true for the protection of patent rights. Therefore, the law limits how the right holder can exercise the patent right, and the patentee is not allowed to abuse the patent right. This restriction reflects The exercise of private remedy rights is also reflected in the exercise of public remedies.

If you file a lawsuit in court, you should provide the court with the following evidence:

The first is evidence of rights, that is, documents that can prove the authenticity and validity of the patent rights, including patent certificates, claims, instructions and the latest patent annual fee payment receipt. Since your patent is a utility model patent, the court may also require you to issue a patent evaluation report made by the State Intellectual Property Office after searching, analyzing and evaluating your utility model, as evidence in the trial.

At the same time, you must clarify the scope of protection of the patent right. The scope of protection of the utility model patent shall be based on the content of the claims. The description andThe drawings may be used to explain the claims. Moreover, the scope of protection of patent rights includes not only the scope determined by the technical features recorded in the claims, but also the scope determined by equivalent features. The so-called equivalent features refer to features that use basically the same means to achieve basically the same functions and achieve basically the same effects as the recorded technology, and that a person of ordinary skill in the field can associate with it without having to go through creative work. However, the principle of equivalents is subject to the donation rule and the estoppel rule. The donation rule means that for technical solutions recorded in the specification but not in the claims, the patentee shall not claim in patent infringement litigation that they fall within the scope determined by equivalent features, and the patentee shall be deemed to have donated them to the public, that is, Said, the scope of protection of your patent right can only be determined by the technical features recorded in the claims. The description can only be used to explain the claims and cannot arbitrarily expand the scope of protection of the patent right. The estoppel rule means that the content that the patentee has given up during the grant or invalidation procedure cannot be included in the scope of protection of the patent through the application of the principle of equivalents. This means that when you apply for a patent or during the invalidation procedure, Any restrictive modifications or statements of opinion to the claims will change the scope of protection of the patent rights, thereby affecting future patent infringement lawsuits. Claims that have been abandoned cannot be asserted in patent infringement lawsuits.

If the claim contains multiple claims, you should also specify in the complaint the claims based on which you file a patent infringement lawsuit. You can also argue in the first-instance court. Before the discussion ends, select one or more claims to determine the scope of protection of the patent right. That is to say, you can select either independent claims or dependent claims to determine the scope of protection of the patent right.

The second is evidence of infringement. You must provide evidence to prove the alleged infringing technical solution, as well as comparative materials on the characteristics of the alleged infringing technical solution. You need to explain to the court that the technical features of the alleged infringing technical solution include all technical features within the scope of patent protection, that is, the “comprehensive coverage principle” in theory in patent law. This is the basic method for determining patent infringement. The accused infringing technical solution Whether other added technical features are included does not affect the establishment of infringement.

The third is evidence of compensation to prove the losses you have suffered due to the infringement or the benefits gained by the infringer due to the infringement, including the amount of money spent to stop the infringement. Reasonable expenses paid. If it is difficult to determine your actual losses or the infringement gains of the infringer, you can ask the court to determine the amount of compensation. The court will reasonably determine the amount of compensation with reference to 1 to 3 times the patent license fee. If there is no patent license fee to refer to or the patent license fee is obviously unreasonable, the court will determine the amount of compensation based on factors such as the type of patent right, the nature and circumstances of the infringement, etc. , determine the amount of compensation between RMB 10,000 and RMB 1 million.

In addition, if you sign a patent implementation license contract with others, if it is an exclusive implementation license contract, the licensee can sue the court separately; if it is an exclusive implementation license contract, the licensee can We may jointly file a lawsuit with you, or you may file a lawsuit on your own without you filing a lawsuit. However, you must submit proof that you know that an infringement has occurred and have expressly given up or not sued. In the above circumstances, documentation proving that the patent license contract is filed with the patent administration department of the State Council should also be submitted; if it has not been filed, other evidence that can prove the enjoyment of rights should be submitted.

The above is the editor’s explanation of how to protect the rights and interests of patent rights. There are many ways to protect the rights and interests of patent rights. The purpose of establishing patent rights is to prevent the rights and interests of relevant people from being too infringed. However, in the process of protecting rights and interests, relevant legal regulations cannot be violated. To learn more about legal knowledge, please go to the Legal Savior website for professional consultation.