Research On The Standard Essential Patents Information Disclosure Obligation And Related Regulations

In the era of the knowledge economy,with the rapid development of technology and the acceleration of economic globalization,the relationship between technical standards and patents is becoming more and more close.Most of the owners of new technologies choose to protect their own technology with patent rights,which makes it difficult for technical standards to be set independently without patents.However,the standard represents the public interest,so when it is combined with the patent right,it leads to a conflict of interest between the parties.In order to balance the interests of all parties,it is necessary to ensure that the technical solution of the standard can bypass the patented technology without licensing commitment,so as to avoid the hijacking of the whole standard or the excessive implementation cost of the standard due to individual patents.Full and true disclosure of Standard Essential Patents is conducive for standardization organizations to make reasonable decisions,reduce the total implementation cost of standards,and ensure the smooth progress of subsequent standard essential patent license negotiations.There are three main ways to regulate violations of information disclosure obligations: the standardization organization’s own policy,patent law,and antitrust law.However,due to the equal civil subject status between the standardization organization and its members,the binding power of standardization organization itself is limited.Therefore,it is very important to regulate the violation of disclosure obligation through the patent law and antitrust law.This thesis first sorts out the Information Disclosure Policies of major standardization organizations,and then discusses the regulatory paths of patent law and antitrust law for Information Disclosure Obligation of Standard Essential Patents,and finally puts forward suggestions on improving the Information Disclosure System of Standard Essential Patents from the perspective of standardization law,patent law and anti-monopoly law.In China’s Standardization Law,the provisions on the disclosure time of standard essential patents and the specific content of legal liability for breach of standard essential patent disclosure obligations are not clear.In the subsequent improvement of the Standardization Law,the disclosure time of standard essential patent information can be further clarified.The legal liability for breach of standard essential patent disclosure obligations should also be further clarified or explained in other relevant laws and regulations to minimize the uncertainty of the resolution of related disputes.The provisions of the Patent Law on the implied licensing of patents involved in standard setting cannot be totally denied.Requiring patent owners who violate disclosure obligations to bear the legal consequences of an implied license is actually a reasonable restriction on their rights.The implied license for undisclosed patents should not be limited to national standards,but should be further extended to international standards.In this way,it is possible to avoid situations where Chinese companies are disadvantaged in the global market competition.From the perspective of anti-monopoly law,due to its strong principle,anti-monopoly law lacks sufficient pertinence and operability for issues related to the regulation of complex and variable patent information disclosure obligations.For the regulation of violations of standard and essential patent information disclosure obligations,the Anti-Monopoly Law can only provide in principle provisions.That is,the application of the Anti-Monopoly Law can be considered when violations of information disclosure obligations constitute exclusion or restriction of competition.