知识产权惩罚性赔偿的类型化适用与风险避免——基于国际知识产权规则的视角

惩罚性赔偿制度的目的在于通过惩罚既往侵权行为而威慑未来侵权行为,其前提包括权利的确定性、侵权判断可行和过度威慑的消极影响小。知识产权的不确定性决定了它与惩罚性赔偿有着根本冲突,难以全面适用惩罚性赔偿制度。从惩罚性赔偿制度的前提和侵权行为的道德可责性出发,可对知识产权惩罚性赔偿进行类型化适用,恶意知识产权侵权行为或可适用惩罚性赔偿,一般知识产权侵权行为则难以适用。在国际知识产权规则下,既要保护知识产权,又要为正当竞争保留合理空间,知识产权与竞争的平衡才可产生最优的创新激励效果。知识产权惩罚性赔偿可能造成过度威慑,打破知识产权与竞争的平衡,妨碍知识产权法基本目标的实现。类型化适用有利于降低或避免知识产权惩罚性赔偿的制度风险。

Categorized Application and Risk Avoidance of the Intellectual Property Punitive Damages

With the key function of deterring future infringements by punishing the past ones,the puni-tive damages system has three elements as its preconditions,i.e.,the certainty of the right to be protected,the feasibility of judgment of infringement,and,the non-excessiveness of deterrent effects.Correspondingly,the uncertainty of intellectual property(IP)rights has led to the fundamental conflicts between the IP system and punitive damages,making it difficult to adopt fully the punitive damages into the IP system.While punitive damages may be applied to malicious IP infringements,it could hardly be applied to general IP infringements.Under the in ternational IP rules,it is necessary to protect IP rights fairly and to reserve reasonable space for fair competition at the same time.Only a fair balance between IP rights and competition can produce the best innovation incentive effects.Punitive damages may cause excessive deterrence,break the balance between IP rights and competition,and hinder the realization of the primary objective of IP law.Categorized application of IP punitive damages is conducive to mitigating or avoiding the institutional risks of IP punitive damages.