1. What kind of patent disputes are allowed to be mediated?
The department that manages patent work can Mediate patent disputes other than patent infringement disputes at the request of the parties, including:
(1) Disputes over patent application rights and ownership of patent rights;
(2) Disputes over the qualifications of inventors or designers;
(3) Rewards and rewards for inventors or designers of service inventions Remuneration disputes;
(4) Disputes involving the use of an invention after the invention patent application is published but before the patent is granted without paying appropriate fees.
2. What are the results of mediation of patent disputes
Patent disputes Mediation must adhere to the principles of voluntariness and legality.
If an agreement is reached through mediation, the municipal patent management department shall prepare a mediation agreement; if mediation fails, the municipal patent management department may terminate the mediation and notify Both parties may bring a lawsuit to the People's Court in accordance with the law.
3. What are the skills in patent infringement litigation
Some basic Litigation skills:
1. Proof of infringement
In patent infringement litigation, the completeness of the evidence is extremely important important. The plaintiff needs to prove that: the infringed product or method is covered by the patent claims; the defendant’s infringement is a statutory infringement.
There are also some negative examples in this regard, where the wrong person was sued, resulting in passivity in litigation. For example, a well-known daily chemical company in the United States has a patent for washing liquid packaging.Regarding the appearance design of the bottle, the defendant argued that the packaging bottle was purchased from an outside company, and what the defendant was selling was the washing liquid in the bottle, which should not be the subject of infringement. Accordingly, the court held that the defendant did not commit statutory infringement and the plaintiff was forced to settle with the defendant.
2. Expert opinion
In patent litigation, Beijing courts and foreign courts must consider expert opinions There is a clear difference in the degree of dependence. In foreign-related patent infringement litigation, foreign courts generally appoint expert appraisal institutions to compare and identify the patents involved; while Beijing courts pay more attention to the self-reports of the parties. If the parties can explain the technology clearly, they usually do not need experts to provide opinions, and even more Close to adversarialism.
3. Pre-litigation injunction
Almost all patentees are very concerned about pre-litigation injunctions Problem, because the effect of pre-litigation injunction is very strong, almost all patentees hope to use pre-litigation injunction to make the infringer stop the infringement before litigation. To apply for a pre-litigation injunction, two conditions must be met. First, the evidence of infringement must be conclusive and clear; the determination of infringement must also be obvious and convincing. In addition, there must be evidence to prove that there will be irreparable losses if a pre-litigation injunction is not adopted. The latter condition is difficult to meet in most cases.
4. Damages
It is not recommended that the parties raise the demand for damages too high in the lawsuit. .
Judging from the current practice of patent trials in China, proposing high damages does not bring any more benefit to the parties except for news hype. Because it is too difficult to prove according to the provisions of China's current Patent Law and the compensation calculation method, most of the compensation in patent infringement cases is the court's discretionary compensation, that is, statutory compensation, but the upper limit of statutory compensation is 500,000 yuan, so tens of millions of damages have to be claimed. In addition to paying high legal fees, the actual compensation received in the end will be far from the proposed figure. Furthermore, it may not be in the plaintiff's favor to seek high damages, as such a case would put unnecessary pressure on the court. In many patent infringement cases, it is more appropriate to propose appropriate damages. According to our analysis, the amount of patent damage compensation is generally around 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, so it is more advantageous to file it as a litigation claim.
5. Others
The costs incurred by the parties in patent infringement litigation include attorney fees, Company staffAt this stage, it is impossible to make up for the investment through damages awarded by the court, and the difference between the two is relatively large. However, by filing infringement lawsuits, foreign rights holders will undoubtedly increase their market share in commercial competition. For infringing companies, losing the lawsuit is a disaster for them. Patent infringement litigation is also a means of commercial competition.
