Research On The Identification Of "Use Environment Characteristics" In Patent Infringement Litigation

Despite the impact of COVID-19 on the global social and economic development,many countries in the world have increased investment in research and development to combat the epidemic,and achieved some results.This makes us more aware of the importance of technological innovation and intellectual property rights.Intellectual property protection system in China has always been attached great importance and has made great progress,but the rapid update of technological development makes new types of infringement disputes can not be effectively resolved.As the necessary technical features to be compared in patent infringement litigation,the use of environmental characteristics is particularly important in the determination of new technology infringement.Strengthening the research on the use of environmental characteristics patent infringement is also of great significance to promote scientific and technological innovation and stimulate social vitality.The use of environmental characteristics is an original concept in China’s judicial practice,which originated from shimano case of Supreme Court Bulletin.In China,the definition of the characteristics of the use environment is relatively broad,and the specific identification in judicial practice is constantly developing and changing.For example,the classic case "Huawei v.ZTE" in 2013 discussed whether the method invention could be applied,and the Selected case No.18 in The Summary of The Judgment Essentials of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People’s Court（2021）published in March 2022 extended the adaptive interpretation of "connection and cooperation relationship".But up to now,the identification rules of using environmental characteristics have not formed a general theory in theory and judicial practice.It may not only increase the public’s duty of care unreasonably,but even lead to the infringement of prior technology in the market,so that the market order is not conducive to protecting the interests of the patentee.Therefore,how to effectively solve the dilemma of judicial practice mentioned above,it is very important to reasonably identify the characteristics of the use environment in the determination of infringement.Based on the above background,this paper firstly reviews the initial definition of the case and studies the inherent meaning of the concept again in combination with the patents involved in the case,analyzes the necessity of the existence of the concept,sorts out the provisions on this in China’s normative documents,and discriminates the similar concepts or precedents outside the region.Secondly,it explains the problems existing in the current identification rules from the perspective of infringement determination process.In addition,by case,multi-angle perspective to reshape a patent infringement lawsuit cognizance rules about using the environment characteristics,including how to identify the use environment characteristics,and gives its scope of protection of extensibility,understanding of the role of qualified,and carries on the simple new classification and conception,so that to set using the environment characteristics of details;Finally,suggestions on improving the identification rules of environmental characteristics of use and countermeasures in the practice of patent protection are put forward in order to help the theoretical research and judicial practice of identification of environmental characteristics of use in China...