专利禁止反悔原则体系化解释——法律基础、定位与完善

专利禁止反悔原则以诚实信用原则作为法理基础,在法律定位上属于等同侵权的限制原则。禁止反悔原则适用于限缩性修改或陈述,其适用的首要条件是存在技术方案放弃的客观事实。专利申请人、专利权人对于技术方案的放弃在外观上应当满足明确性要求,其标准是本领域普通技术人员能够合理相信其通过修改或陈述放弃了某一技术方案。只有以满足授予专利权的实质性要求为目的的限缩性修改或陈述才能够适用禁止反悔原则,但该原则的适用不以限缩性修改或陈述与专利权授予或维持之间存在因果关系为前提。禁止反悔原则的适用受到“明确否定”例外的限制,“明确否定”应当是裁判者对限缩性修改或陈述本身的明示性不予认可。我国司法实践中禁止反悔原则属于“弹性禁止规则”,对于专利审查过程中未被放弃的技术内容,专利权人仍可主张等同侵权。

Prosecution history estoppel,grounded in the principle of good faith,serves as a limitation to the doctrine of equivalents.It applies to narrowing amendments and statements,with the primary condition for its application being the objective fact of subject matter surrender.The surrender of subject matter by the right holder must meet the requirement of clarity in appearance,with the standard being that a person with ordinary skills in the field can reasonably infer the abandonment through these amendments or statements.The doctrine of prosecution history estoppel is exclusively applicable to those narrowing amendments and statements that aim to meet the substantive patent requirements.However,its application is not based on the premise of a causal relationship between these narrowing amendments or statements and the granting or maintenance of a patent right.The application of prosecution history estoppel is confined by the"explicit negation"exception.An explicit negation refers to an explicit denial of the narrowing amendments or statements by the patent examiner.In China,the doctrine of prosecution history estoppel applies as a flexible bar,which means that the patentee can still assert patent infringement under the doctrine of equivalents for subject matter that was not surrendered during the patent examination process.