Patent administrative adjudication shows its efficiency advantage.
According to the latest data released by China National Intellectual Property Administration recently, from 2019 to 2021, the number of cases of patent infringement disputes settled by intellectual property systems across the country increased by 16.3% annually, and the average period of handling cases after making administrative rulings was reduced by one third compared with the statutory time limit. The intensity of handling patent administrative rulings has been continuously increased, and the efficiency of handling cases has been continuously improved, effectively giving play to the advantages of quick and efficient administrative protection of intellectual property rights and diversified solutions to contradictions and disputes, and effectively safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of innovative subjects and their enthusiasm for innovation and creation.
"As one of the important ways of patent administrative protection, administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes has the characteristics of high efficiency, low cost and strong professionalism, and plays an important role in ensuring the’ fast, accurate and practical’ patent protection." The relevant person in charge of China National Intellectual Property Administration Intellectual Property Protection Department said. In recent years, the top-level design of administrative adjudication has been continuously strengthened at the national level, and the administrative adjudication system has taken root in intellectual property protection. China National Intellectual Property Administration organized and promoted the local intellectual property system to actively carry out the practice of administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes, and a number of useful experiences that can be used for reference, copied and popularized emerged.
Perfecting the system and doing practical things
Constructing and perfecting the rapid response mechanism for handling patent infringement disputes and solving the problem of "long cycle" of patent infringement disputes are important starting points for promoting the quality and efficiency of intellectual property protection and effectively optimizing the business environment. An outstanding advantage of the administrative adjudication system is to resolve conflicts and disputes quickly and efficiently through diversified means.
In order to give full play to the advantages of "quick protection" of administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes, various localities have been exploring and improving the construction of administrative adjudication system based on their own work practice, focusing on consolidating the work foundation, strengthening process control, putting standards and norms first, and strengthening cooperation. For example, Shandong Province, guided by the Implementation Opinions on Continuously and Deeply Optimizing the Business Environment, has implemented smooth acceptance channels and accepted cases according to law. Tighten all links and strengthen institutional constraints; Take the initiative to investigate and collect evidence; Through the implementation of entrusted law enforcement mechanism, integrate law enforcement forces; Establish a long-term mechanism for business guidance and other measures to comprehensively improve the efficiency of handling patent administrative rulings.
"The main function of administrative adjudication is to solve civil disputes closely related to administrative activities. According to the principle of administrative handling first, the administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes can not only solve the illegality in the process of law enforcement, but also find the omissions in patent management, identify the crux of the dispute, and then sum up the problems, prevent the delay, and achieve better protection for innovation and creation. " Cheng Xiezhong, a professor at the Law School of China University of Political Science and Law, said.
The system of "notification before cutting-guidance after cutting" established in Sichuan is just an example. Post-adjudication guidance mechanism refers to providing extended adjudication services to guide the claimant to improve intellectual property protection measures and reduce the risk of infringement; Directing the requested party to enhance their awareness of intellectual property protection, establish a working system for intellectual property protection, promote technical improvement and upgrading, and avoid the recurrence of infringement, which fully reflects the effectiveness of the whole chain protection of intellectual property management departments.
Innovating mechanism and making practical moves
As an important part of building an efficient implementation system of the rule of law, administrative adjudication plays the role of a "diverter valve" to resolve civil disputes. "How to realize the benign interaction and organic connection between administrative and judicial dispute resolution modes, unify the implementation standards of administrative, judicial and arbitration procedures, and achieve the protection efficiency of coordination in depth and breadth is the basic practical problem faced by the administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes." Cheng Xiezhong said.
In this regard, there are many explorations of innovative working mechanisms in local practice. For example, Shanghai innovatively implements the judicial confirmation system of administrative mediation agreements, that is, through the judicial confirmation mechanism, the formal certainty and compulsory execution of administrative mediation agreements for intellectual property disputes are enhanced. Since the intellectual property management department has no enforcement power on the administrative mediation agreement, if one party refuses to perform or fails to perform the mediation agreement in full, the other party may apply to the people’s court for enforcement according to this system. This greatly strengthens the enforcement effect of administrative mediation agreement, extends the depth of administrative protection of intellectual property rights, and strengthens the organic connection between administrative protection and judicial protection.
Beijing took the lead in adopting the trial mode of "first refuting and requesting separately", that is, if the patent right involved is declared invalid by China National Intellectual Property Administration, the petitioner in the administrative adjudication case of patent infringement disputes can be informed to withdraw the case. If the petitioner insists on not withdrawing the case, the request can be rejected first, but it can be stated in the award that if the patent right remains valid after judicial review, the petitioner has the right to request another ruling. This trial mode strengthens the connection between patent infringement administrative adjudication and patent confirmation procedure, which can not only improve the efficiency of administrative adjudication, but also reflect the consistency of administrative protection and judicial protection standards, and has certain guidance.
Strengthen support and see actual results
"Professional people do professional things" is the endogenous advantage of administrative adjudication of patent infringement disputes. Most cases of patent infringement disputes are professional and technical, involving a large number of legal issues and a large number of technical facts to be identified. Giving full play to the professional advantages of patent administrative organs, various localities have continuously consolidated their support and strengthened law enforcement guidance by implementing the system of technical investigators, which has steadily demonstrated "professionalism" in administrative law enforcement activities at different levels.
For example, the Guangdong Intellectual Property Office signed a cooperation agreement with the Guangdong Center for Patent Examination and Cooperation of China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office to jointly build a technical support mechanism for patent infringement judgment, making full use of Patent examiners’s technical resources and professional advantages to provide consulting services and technical support for the province’s handling of patent disputes. The Bureau promoted the Guangdong Patent Agency Association to set up an intellectual property dispute mediation center and an intellectual property rights protection assistance center to provide auxiliary services for administrative rulings. During the on-site inquest and trial of the case, the patent administrative adjudication department invited Patent examiners and others as technical investigation experts to give opinions on patent infringement judgment and assist in dealing with relevant technical issues.
In addition, Jiangsu, Hubei, Zhejiang and other places also actively use digital means to build an online case handling system for administrative adjudication and strengthen the informatization construction of the administrative adjudication work system. For example, Hubei Intellectual Property Office has organized and developed a unified "Hubei Patent Infringement Dispute Administrative Adjudication System" in the whole province, which realizes "node-style" standardization and management of the case-handling process, and has the functions of automatic introduction of party information, unified management of the case-handling process, automatic generation of case documents, automatic verification of important information, online handling of the whole case, traceability of the whole case-handling behavior, seamless connection with the data of the existing China National Intellectual Property Administration case analysis and reporting system, data rights protection and big data judgment. (Reporter Li Yangfang)