专利法上的停止侵权救济探析

专利法上的停止侵权救济是针对被告未来可能发生的侵权行为的预防性救济,其理由是被告极有可能在未来侵权。停止侵权与损害赔偿相比具有谦抑性,因此各国对专利诉讼上的停止侵权救济施以较大限制。我国法院把停止侵权救济当然化的做法,违背了停止侵权救济的本质要求,因此应加大对停止侵权救济的限制,比如规定把存在未来侵权可能性作为停止侵权救济的前提,并赋予法院适当的自由裁量权来拒绝停止侵权救济。     

Improper claim dependency invalidates US Lipitor patent

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has confirmedthat a patent claim may be invalidated for what was previouslyconsidered to be a minor technical defect: in essence, a dependentclaim is invalid if it is not a subset of the claim from whichit purports to depend. While Ranbaxy succeeded on this point,its generic Lipitor product was still held to have infringedPfizer's enantiomer patent, which expires on 24 March 2010,with pediatric exclusivity.     

Injunctive and reverse settlements in competition-blocking litigation

We distinguish standard settlements, in which the status quo is preserved, and injunctive settlements, which prohibit the defendant’s activity. The reverse (payment) settlement is a special type of injunctive settlement. We examine the divergence between private and social incentives to settle and policies that would minimize socially undesirable injunctive and reverse settlements (e.g., banning reverse settlements). The results are applied to competition-blocking litigation, such as patent infringement and antidumping.     

US patent infringement statute extends to the international market for copies of US software

In a patent infringement action involving the internationaldistribution of Microsoft's Windows software, the United StatesCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has interpreted USpatent statute 35 USC section 271(f) as extending infringementliability to foreign computers assembled with copies of softwarereplicated abroad from a US-made master version.     

A step back in time: nineteenth century US patent law revisited

‘A book may be good for nothing; or there may be onlyone thing in it worth knowing; are we to read it all through?’(Samuel Johnson) This section is dedicated to the review ofideas, articles, books, films and other media. It will includereplies (and rejoinders) to articles, the evaluation of newideas or proposals, and reviews of books and articles both directlyand indirectly related to intellectual property law.

A Treatise on the Law of Patents for Useful Inventions, FourthEdition By George T. Curtis 1873; Boston: Little Brown Books.Reprinted 2006; Clerk, New Jersey: Lawbook Exchange. Price:US$150, ISBN: 1584775807, pages xxxvii + 749   In the United Kingdom, the great patent treatise of the twentiethcentury     

美国商业秘密法中的禁令救济

一、引言 英美法法谚有云:"救济先于权利",极言救济对于权利保护的重要性.也就是说,如果一项权利在受到侵害时不能获得及时有效的救济,则很难说是严格意义上的法律权利.在现实生活中,存在各种各样的权利,不同的权利有不同的法律构成、法律属性,其指向的法益也大不相同,对权利侵害的行为方式和法律后果千差万别,因而法律应根据各种权利的具体特点设计有针对性的救济措施,以确保权利得到有效维护和最大限度的实现.     

美国专利侵权的禁令救济

美国法院对专利侵权发出永久禁令救济要符合衡平法原则,即满足原告有合法的权利请求、未来侵害是逼近的而且损害赔偿是不充分的、禁令给被告造成的困难并非不成比例地大于给原告的收益、符合公共利益等"四要件".法院发出初步禁令则要考虑"四因素",这与"四要件"标准既有联系又有明显的区别.     

权利不确定性与知识产权停止侵害请求权之限制

目前法院在知识产权侵权案件中对停止侵害救济采取近乎绝对化的方式,这忽略了知识产权权利的不确定性和技术创新的复杂化趋势。由此造成权利人对知识产权停止侵害请求权的策略性运用,增加了创新主体的搜索成本和许可成本,也加剧了司法机关颁发禁令中的错误。为了解决权利保护与知识利用之间的两难问题,在三类情形中应对知识产权权利人的停止侵害请求权进行限制。     

我国应建立处理标准必要专利争议的禁诉令制度

无线通信企业之间的标准必要专利纠纷,经常以国际平行诉讼的方式展现。在司法实践中,我国有些民事诉讼当事人寻求向外国法院申请禁诉令,要求命令对方当事人撤回在我国法院提起的诉讼或者不得执行我国法院的判决,以阻止案件在我国法院进行审理或执行。外国法院的禁诉令已给我国民事诉讼的当事人依法正常行使权利造成很大妨碍,同时亦对我国法院依法行使司法管辖权造成较大冲击,我国应积极予以应对。文章通过介绍域外禁诉令制度的起源和设置的目的,以及域外标准必要专利禁诉令的颁发和反制实践,明确提出我国应在对等和国际礼让原则的基础上建立禁诉令制度,以保护我国民事诉讼当事人的合法权益,并维护国家司法主权。我国司法机关可以先在个案中积极而审慎地实行处理标准必要专利争议的禁诉令制度,并注意与相关配套制度配合适用。通过不断积累适用禁诉令制度的经验,最终通过制定司法解释或民事立法的方式,建立完善的禁诉令制度。     

Knowledge diffusion from university and public research. A comparison between US,Japan and Europe using patent citations

This paper estimates the process of diffusion and decay of knowledge from university, public laboratories and corporate patents in six countries and tests the differences across countries and across technological fields using data from the European Patent Office. It finds that university and public research patents are more cited relatively to companies’ patents. However these results are mainly driven by the Chemical, Drugs & Medical, and Mechanical fields and US universities. In Europe and Japan, where the great majority of patents from public research come from national agencies, there is no evidence of a superior fertility of university and public laboratory patents vis à vis corporate patents. The distribution of the citation lags shows that knowledge embedded in university and public research patents tends to diffuse more rapidly relative to corporate ones in particular in the US, Germany, France and Japan.

Negative declarations in patent cases

The Patents Court has ruled that it has discretion to awarda claimant a negative declaration that its own product was obviousat the priority date of certain divisional applications. Thegrant of the declaration sought would assure the claimant thatit was not accruing ongoing liability.     

Deploying pre-grant patent opposition mechanisms in Africa to monitor abuse of the patent system

This article examines the extent to which African countries could deploy pre-grant patent opposition provisions in their domestic patent regimes to mitigate the abuse of the patent system. The author argues that the public has the right to participate in the patent system in order to oppose the grant of bad patents. Therefore, if African countries were to strengthen legislative provisions on pre-grant opposition civil society and non-governmental organisations that represent the interests and will of citizens would be able to invoke key provisions to challenge any abuse in the patent system in order to protect the public interest.     

The patent lottery

A recent study by Boston academic economists James Bessen andMichael Muerer has argued that many patents are simply not worthhaving. Their case is based on the analysis of a large bodyof data. As James Bessen says, in a comment posted in responseto criticism on the IPKat weblog,

"We derived our estimatesof patent rents after reviewing 16 different papers publishedover 25 years, involving 17 different authors and several differentmethodologies.     

Maximizing patent term in the USA

Legal context: The standard term of a US utility patent is twenty years fromits filing date, but the term may be extended for various reasons.The statutory Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) scheme automaticallyextends the term of a patent by the number of days of delayin prosecution attributable to the United States Patent andTrademark Office (USPTO), minus the number of days of delayattributable to the applicant. By avoiding actions or inactionsthat result in delay, a US patent applicant may maximize theterm of the resulting patent. This article is intended particularlyfor practitioners outside the US who are instructing a US practitioner. Key points: Delay by the applicant chiefly results when more than threemonths elapses from the mailing of a USPTO action or requirementto receipt of the applicant's response or when a paper is filedat an inappropriate time. Such delays may be avoided or minimizedby promptly sending instructions and required documents to theUS patent attorney or agent in charge of the case. Time spentin an ultimately successful appeal of a final rejection willincrease PTA. Errors in PTA calculations by the USPTO may becorrected upon filing a request. Practical significance: PTA can be a potent source of extended US patent term, especiallywhen the applicant takes care not to introduce delay into theexamination process.     

呼唤人道救援的标准化

救援组织目前正面临着迫切的使命,但目前需要解决四个问题. 　　一是协调问题.紧急事件的复杂性也是一项特殊的挑战.……