A Comparative Study Of The Chinese Patent Law Practice

PATENT LITIGATION

Over the past few decades, many high-profile patent infringement cases have been litigated in the U.S. courts. After years of judicial practice and academic research, the U.S. has developed a set of legal doctrines on almost any patent-related dispute. These doctrines, in the form of case law, have a significant impact upon other countries’ patent litigation practice. For example, almost all the major judicial doctrines in the U.S. patent litigation practice have their respective counterparts in China’s patent litigation practice, such as literal infringement, contributory infringement, the doctrine of equivalents and the prosecution estoppel.¹ Meanwhile, China has also adopted some of the doctrines to better serve the Chinese society. The first part of this section discusses the structure of Chinese judicial and administrative systems that handle patent litigation. The second part is an anatomy of an invention patent infringement case to illustrate China’s patent