The Research of the Public Interest in Patent Litigation—Mainland China as an Example

專利權人在權利保護期間享有法律保障之排他性，而智慧財產權之制度設置，必須兼顧個人權利與社會公益，藉由保護權利人進而促進社會公益，但專利權制度中，專利權濫用之現象，對於專利發展中國家而言，尤其是外國專利強權企業利用專利奪取私益已達浮濫程度，造成私益與公益之間的矛盾與衝突，因此專利公益訴訟是平衡兩者之利益的一個手段。而因專利要件審查難以完善，造成許多具有無效事由的專利被授予專利權，這些專利權的存在侵害公眾利益甚鉅，中國大陸的對策為：提起專利公益訴訟使瑕疵專利無效，鼓勵任意第三人對專利之有效性提出挑戰，請求專利管理機關重新進行專利有效性的審查，維護公眾的合法利益；本文比較我國目前具有瑕疵之專利權，仍由民間企業基於非公共利益之商業利益考量而提出專利舉發，分析兩岸的制度及案例，檢視我國專利公益訴訟提出之可能，期使舉發專利無效之制度得以更臻健全。The purpose of the study was to analyze the public interest with regards to patent litigation cases in China. Public interest litigation is litigation for the protection of the public interest. Patentees have the exclusive right to prevent others from exploiting the invention without the patentees' consent during the legal protection. However, intellectual property rights are set up to protect not only rights of patentee but also that of social welfare. To reconcile the contradictions between private interest and public welfare, the study focuses on the phenomenon of abuse of patents discussed in the patent systems and the merits of public interest in patent litigation. Furthermore, the study examines China public interest patent litigation to invalidate defected patent system and encourage any third party to challenge the validity of the patent. Under the comparative legal study approach, the study can provide different perspective for our legal system to improve more beneficially our Patent law system