如何理解马库什权利要求的范围

How to Interpret the Scope of Markush Claim

权利要求的保护范围和记载范围是具有不同内涵的两个概念。保护范围是指权利要求边界之内所包含的内容,记载范围则是指权利要求的边界本身。在对权利要求进行修改、判断是否享有优先权时,应基于记载的范围进行判断。马库什权利要求是一种特殊的权利要求撰写方式,这样的撰写方式由于方便申请人基于具体实施方式进行概括因而在化学领域被广泛使用,但同时,与化学领域可预测性较低的特点存在一定冲突,在专利申请实务中一直存在较多争议。本文认为,删除具有多个变量的马库什通式化合物的某一取代基,不属于并列技术方案的删除,严格来讲也不符合《专利法》第三十三条的规定,但结合化学领域可预测性差的特点和审查实践,可以作为例外规定而在实质审查过程中被允许,但不能在无效程序中被接受。

The protection scope of a claim and the disclosed scope are two different concepts. The protection scope includes the technical solutions covered by the claims, while the disclosed scope refers to the boundary itself. It shall be noted that the standards of amendment and priority are based on the disclosed scope. Markush claim is a special type of claims and is wildly used in chemistry area which helps the applicant to generalize the inventions based on specific examples. However, this type of claim is of dispute in practice due to the low predictivity in chemistry field. In this article the author, after analysis, concludes that the deletion of specific substituent group does not belong to deletion of parallel technical solutions which is allowed in invalidation procedure, and this way of deletion does not comply with Article 33 of Chinese Patent Law. However, due to the low predictivity in chemistry field, the deletion of specific substituent group could be accepted in the substantial examination procedure and the determination of priority.