论发明专利申请“修改不得超范围”之判断

Study on the Judgment of “Amendments Shall Not Go Beyond the Scope” for Patent Application for Invention

对发明专利申请文件修改不得超出原说明书和权利要求书记载的范围(以下简称"修改不得超范围")的判断是审查实践中广泛涉及的问题,在实审、复审、无效以及诉讼各阶段均被高度关注。当前有关"修改不得超范围"的判断标准及判断尺度的把握,在理论和实践中存在很多争议和不确定之处,亟待解决。以两个法院判决引出问题,深入研究我国、欧洲和美国对于涉及扩大权利要求保护范围的几种典型修改方式的相关规定和判断方法,比较各国专利体系中对此问题的审查标准和处理方式的优缺之处,全面系统地给出关于如何统一我国"修改不得超范围"判断的标准和尺度的意见和建议。

The judgment of amendments to patent application documents for invention shall not go beyond the scope of disclosure contained in the initial description and claims（hereinafter referred to as ＂amendments shall not go beyond the scope＂） is a widely involved question in the examination practice. The question is given highly attention in the process of substantive examination, reexamination, invalidation and litigation. As to current criterion for judgment of ＂amendments shall not go beyond the scope＂ and the scale of judgment, there are disputes and uncertainty in theory and practice needing to be resolved urgently. The thesis arises a question from two judicial decisions, and makes an intensive study on the correlative provisions and ways of judgment in SIPO, EPO and USPTO, especially for several typical amendment leading to the broadening of claims, and compares the merits and demerits of the examination criterions and processing methods of the question in the patent systems of SIPO, EPO and USPTO, and then raises comments and suggestions on how to unify the criterion and scale for judgment of ＂amendments shall not go beyond the scope＂ in SIPO.