Decision of the Supreme People's Court on Revising the Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Patent Dispute Cases ("Decision") has taken effect on 1st February 2015

In order to correspond with the current Patent Law and its judicial interpretation, Decision has been made, which futher explains the patent evaluation report, the principle on defining an infringement, the amount of compensation and etc. The key points of Decision are as follows:

The implementation of the patent evaluation report as stipulated in the Patent Law

The plaintiff may submit a search report issued by the patent administrative authority of the State Council for a patent infringement lawsuit based on utility model patent filed before October 1, 2009. The plaintiff may submit a patentability assessment report issued by the patent administrative authority of the State Council for a patent infringement lawsuit based on utility model patent and design patent filed on or after October 1, 2009. As needed by adjudication of the lawsuit, the people’s court may order the plaintiff to submit a search report or a patentability assessment report. Where a plaintiff fails to comply with the court order without a good cause, the people’s court may suspend the legal proceedings or order the plaintiff to bear corresponding negative consequences.

The principle on defining an infringement

Decision has amended the scope of protection of the patent from “the necessary technical features expressly stated in the claims” to “all the technical features expressly stated in the claims”, which embodies the “all-covering principle” and denies the opinion of “necessary technical features”.

The amount of compensation

Decision has deleted the provision on the amount of compensation, which says the amount of compensation is more than RMB 5,000 Yuan, and less than RMB 300,000 Yuan, but not exceeding RMB500, 000 Yuan. Instead, Decision has prescribed that according to the categories of the patent, the nature and fact of the infringement, the court can determine the amount of compensation of more than RMB 10,000 Yuan, and less than RMB 1,000,000 Yuan.