The Supreme People's Court announced the Judicial Interpretation (JI) on Some Issues Regarding Application of Laws of Patent Infringement Cases (for comment version) on June 18, inviting the public to offer their comments.  The

JI provides for scope of patent protection, determination of patent infringement and defense. 

In regard to the scope of protection for invention and utility model patents, Article 2 of the JI provides, court shall determine the scope of protection of an invention or utility model patent based on the understanding of description and drawing(s) by a person skilled in the art.  In parallel, the scope shall be consistent with the objective of the invention and shall not include the technical solution through which the patent overcomes the defect or insufficiency of the prior art.  Article 9 provides for the scope of protection of design patent: Court shall determine the scope of protection of design patent as in Article 59 (2) of the Patent Law by looking at design identical or similar to the design patented products or similar products.

The public is invited to submit their comments via mail or online as of July 10.

(China IP News)