Research On The Judgment Of Divided Infringement Of Method Patents

The emergence of multi-agent method patent has brought technological innovation in the fields of medical treatment,finance and communication.Meanwhile,its infringement problem has posed a severe challenge to the traditional patent infringement judgment system based on the traditional single-agent implementation.In the divided infringement of method patents,there is no intentional communication between executors.The executors implement part of the steps of the method patent.The combination of these steps completely reproduces the claims of the method patent.The accused infringing subject manufacturing and selling products directly implementing the patented method or providing services involving the implementation of the patented method does not belong to the type of direct infringement of the Patent Law,nor does it meet the conditions of comprehensive coverage of the method patent by a single subject,so it is not established direct infringement.There is no common intention between the accused subject and each executing subject,so there is no joint harm behavior.Because there is no direct infringement,it does not constitute induced or contributory infringement,and at the same time,it is difficult to satisfy the "special supplies" requirement in contributory infringement.In judicial practice,the relevant judgments have used the theory of "independence" and "inducement only theory",but their ideas of breaking through the theory of "subordination" and establishing the idea of induced or contributory infringement cannot be supported by the current law.In addition,both the " control or direct " standard and the "substantial solidification" standard determine that the accused establishes direct infringement.The former lacks the theoretical basis of vicarious liability in China,while the latter is within the existing framework of direct infringement determination in China.Through the comparison of specific cases,divided infringement of method patents should be regulated under the judgment framework of direct patent infringement in China.Referring to the constituent elements of the "substantive solidification" standard,the subjective aspect does not consider whether there is a fault,and the subject accused of infringement in the behavioral aspect sets all the steps of the implementation method patent conditions in advance.The results correspond to the implementation of each step in the method patent,and satisfy the comprehensive coverage of the method patent by a single subject in causality,which constitutes direct patent infringement.