论日本专利侵权“所失利益”的法律性质:“可推翻之推定”

On the Legal Nature of the"Lost Profits"in Patent Infringement in Japan:"Rebuttable Presumption"

日本专利侵权的所失利益方式具有“可推翻之推定”的法律性质。所失利益方式旨在填补专利权人被侵权产品侵蚀的市场份额,当专利权人的产品与侵权产品存在市场竞争关系时,损失发生因果关系即成立,此时便可将侵权产品销量暂时地推定为损害范围。推定的成立具有暂时性,可以被反证推翻。如果侵权人能反证证明,即便侵权不发生,专利权人由于缺乏充分的实施能力也不可能获得所有的侵权产品销量,那么超过该实施能力的部分便应予扣除,即“部分地推翻推定内容”。“推定”具有减轻专利权人证明责任、简化计算过程的效果,而“推翻推定”通过将不具有相当因果关系的部分从暂定的推定内容中扣除,为获得符合“完全赔偿原则”的赔偿额提供了制度保障。日本法的经验对于完善我国专利侵权的实际损失方式极具借鉴意义。我国专利法中的实际损失方式公式二与日本的所失利益方式表面上十分相近。但前者在减轻权利人证明责任的同时却未能同时兼顾实体法上“完全赔偿原则”的要求,这表现在:缺乏对损害发生因果关系的考察,损害范围因果关系的认定忽视对个案中权利人具体损害的考察。完善实际损失方式的关键在于,运用“可推翻之推定”理论,将“推定”与“推翻”机制内嵌入实际损失方式中。将该方式所针对的损害实际发生作为适用条件,同时纠正目前“全部市场价值原则”的司法实践,承认推定的部分可推翻性,使法官价值评价介入损害范围认定过程。此外,纠正各计算方式顺位适用的做法,使实际损失方式的被推翻部分适用合理许可费方式,由实际损失方式和合理许可费方式共同决定赔偿额,由此充分填补专利权人的各类损害,实现“完全赔偿”。

"Lost profits"as a method to calculate patent infringement damages in Japan has the legal nature of"rebuttable presumption".The"lost profits"method aims to compensate the lost market share of the patentee,which is eroded by the infringing products.When patented products and infringing products compete,the causality of the damage is established,and the sales of the infringing products can be temporarily presumed to be the scope of the damage.The presumption is temporary and can be rebutted by counterevidence.If the infringer can prove that even if there is no infringement,the patentee,due to lacking enough patent enforcement capability,cannot acquire all the sales of the infringing products,the part of the sales that exceeds the patentee's enforcement capability should be deducted from damage,i.e.,"partly rebut the presumption"."Presumption"relieves the patentee of burden of proof and simply the calculation,while the"rebutted presumption"excludes the part without causality from the temporary presumption and provides institutional guarantee for awarding the damages according to the full compensation principle.The Japanese experiences are enlightening to improve the actual loss calculation method concerning patent infringement in China.The second among the five actual loss calculation methods as stipulated in Chinese patent law is superficially similar to the Japanese lost profits method,however,the former although relieving the patentee’s burden of proof,fails to take into account the requirements of the"full compensation principle"in the substantive law,for example,it doesn’t investigate the causality of the damage, and the specific harm to the patentee in individual cases is ignored in determining thecausality of damage. The key point in improving the actual loss method lies in embedding the "presumption"and "rebut" mechanism in the actual loss method through applying the "rebuttable presumption" theory. Thepaper proposes to use the actual occurrence of the damage as the applicable condition, correct the current judicialpractice of the "full market value principle", accept that the presumption can be partly rebutted, and let judge tointervene the determination of damage scope. In addition, it is suggested to rearrange the sequential applicationof various calculation methods, so that the overturned part of in the actual loss calculation being applicable tothe reasonable license fee calculation method, thus the actual loss method and the reasonable license fee methodjointly determine the amount of damages, to fully compensate all kinds of damages to the patentee.