China To Adopt Provisions On Contributory Infringement

In legal terms, contributory infringement of a patent right means an act of deliberately inducing or encouraging a third party to infringe a patent, while the act as such does not directly infringe the patent.

In some countries such as the US, Germany and the UK, legal liability of contributory infringement of a patent (as such or in similar terms) is explicitly provided for in the law. However, there are not any such provisions in the current Chinese patent law. Moreover, the concept of contributory infringement is missing even in the general framework of civil law.

A question arises in the practice of patent enforcement, which is how the Chinese courts handle cases involving contributory infringement. Specifically, what is the law that judges apply to such cases?