专利权用尽原则辨析——以种子专利为主要视角

Analysis of Patent Exhaustion Principle——Taking the Monsanto Case of USA Supreme Court as Main Example

专利权用尽原则的目的在于平衡专利权人和社会公众的利益。美国最高法院的孟山都案中被告以专利权用尽原则进行抗辩,没有得到支持。由于种子的自复制特性,种子领域专利权用尽原则与专利权本身存在冲突,需要受到限制,具体表现为专利权人可以对购买方和被许可方使用专利技术的方式进行限制,但要受到专利权滥用原则和反托拉斯法的规制。尽管植物新品种保护制度中规定了农民权例外,但如果同时存在植物品种专利,则农民权不复存在。

The patent exhaustion principle is to balance the interests of patentee and the public. The defendant in the Monsanto case of USA Supreme Court took patent exhaustion principle as a defense, but he did not succeed. Because of the self reproduction characteristics of seed, there is a conflict between patent exhaustion principle and the patent right itself in the seed field, so patent exhaustion principle should be restricted in this field. Specifically, the patentee can limit the way by which the licensee and purchaser use the patented technology, but this still should be subject to the regulation of patent abuse principle and antitrust law.Although the new plant variety protection system stipulates the exception of the rights of farmers, the rights of farmers will no longer exist if there is also a plant patent at the same time.