Research On The Application Of Estoppel In Patent Law

As a judgment principle of infringement,the principle of estoppel can play a role in clarifying the scope of patent protection and is widely applied in the process of defending patent infringement.At present,because the existing legal provisions of the principle of estoppel are too general,there are differences in value judgments,which lead to the lack of concrete adherence to the applicable law in judicial practice,so that referees have differences in understanding and application of the principle,resulting in different judgments in the same case.By sorting out the cases in which the principle of estoppel was the focus of disputes in recent five years and analyzing the conditions and standards of application of this principle,it is found that there are some problems of passive application and flexible application of referees.The reason lies in the unclear relationship between the principle of estoppel and the principle of equivalence,as well as the unclear legal provisions.Using value analysis and empirical analysis,this paper explores the relationship between the principle of estoppel and the principle of equivalence.Combined with domestic and foreign cases of estoppel principle,with the background of low technology level in the high-tech field and facing the technology blockade,and with the balance of individual interests and group interests as the target,it puts forward applicable standards for the principle of estoppel: The conditions for the application of this principle shall be the existence of restrictive behavior,the existence of specific restrictive purpose,the fact that the shrinkage restriction behavior has not been explicitly denied by relevant departments.In addition,the elastic exclusion theory is used as the applicable scale of estoppel principle,and the elastic scale is strictly controlled,and the scale is limited to "unforeseeable" and "marginal association" in the narrow sense.Finally,relevant suggestions are put forward to improve the applicable law of the estoppel principle.