Research On The Evolution And Application Of The U.S.Patent Exhaustion Principle

The purpose of the patent system is not only to encourage innovation and promote industrial development,but also to balance the interests of the public and the patentee.The emergence of patent exhaustion principle is precisely based on the need for such a kind of balanceThis principle,which was established and developed by the United States Supreme Court and supplemented by the United States Federal Court of Appeal,deviated from the original intention of establishing the principle of patent exhaustion.The divergent views of the United States Federal Court of Appeal include that patentees can evade the application of exhaustion of rights by virtue of after-sale restrictions,and adopt domestic exhaustion claims in the face of after-sale restrictions.In response to this,the United States Supreme Court made the judgement of the case named Impression Products,Inc.v.Lexmark International,Inc.in 2017.This judgment reinterprets the purpose of patent exhaustion principle,reconciles the differences in the past,and results in the substantial expansion of the application scope of patent exhaustion principle,i.e.absolute exhaustion and international exhaustion.That is to say,the patentee may not evade the application of patent exhaustion principle by virtue of the after-sale restriction clause in the contract,and the place of first sale that triggers the exhaustion of patent right is not limited to the territory of a country.This paper mainly adopts case study method,through analyzing the relevant cases of patent exhaustion principle,tries to explore the significance and origin of this principle and illustrates its evolution trend.The principle of patent exhaustion in the United States originated from common law and developed through practice,while the principle of patent exhaustion in China is embodied in the provisions of the patent law.Through the observation of the judicial practice of patent exhaustion principle in the United States,this paper explores the application of patent exhaustion principle in China and provides a reference of how to adapt to the new trend of this development in China.From the structural point of view,the content of this paper is divided into five chapters.The first chapter,as an overview of the whole paper,reveals the necessity of the principle of patent exhaustion,which restricts patent rights under the protection of patent rights in patent law,and analyses the meaning and purpose of the principle of patent exhaustion.In the second chapter,according to the two main lines of the U.S.Supreme Court and the U.S.Federal Circuit Court of Appeal,the typical cases of the two courts on patent exhaustion principle are summarized,the evolution trend of this in the development process of the United States is revealed,and the differences in the application scope of patent exhaustion principle and the remaining problems to be solved are discussed.The third chapter analyses the historical case of the United States Supreme Court in 2017:Impression Products,Inc.v.Lexmark International,Inc.,which shows the different opinions of the courts on patent exhaustion principle in the course of the three levels of litigation.The fourth chapter summarizes the application scope of the updated principle of patent exhaustion,i.e.absolute exhaustion and international exhaustion,and the reasons why the United States Supreme Court actively led the expansion of the application scope.The fifth chapter illustrates the historical evolution of the relevant legal provisions of patent law legislation on the principle of patent exhaustion in China and demonstrates that the application of patent exhaustion stipulated in the legal provisions is absolute exhaustion and international exhaustion.Subsequently,the specific types of cases in judicial practice of patent exhaustion in China are analyzed,and the objective differences between judicial practice and legal provisions are revealed.Furthermore,this paper explores the practical considerations of the application of patent exhaustion principle in China,and the possible impact of the expansion of the application scope of patent exhaustion principle in the United States on the relevant industries in China and the corresponding strategies.