How long is the limitation of patent infringement litigation?

After the patent right is infringed, choosing litigation may be one of the most appropriate ways to safeguard one's own rights and interests. So, how long is the limitation of patent infringement litigation? The limitation of action for infringement of patent rights stipulated in the patent law is two years, counting from the date when the patentee or interested party knows or should know about the infringement; Where the patentee already knows or should know before the date of patent grant, it shall be counted from the date of patent grant. Article 62 of the Patent Law stipulates that the limitation of action for patent infringement is two years, counting from the date when the patentee or interested party knows or should know about the infringement. This is consistent with the provisions of Article 137 of the Civil Code. However, there are two special situations at the starting point of the limitation of patent infringement litigation: (1) suing for patent infringement for more than two years is often continuous, sometimes even intermittent. If the patentee has not claimed his rights within two years since he knew or should have known that he was infringed, and the infringement continues after two years, it is obviously unfair not to protect the patentee at this time. The patentee's right of claim can be divided into the right of claim for real right and the right of claim for creditor's rights. The former refers to stopping the infringement, but from the purpose of the prescription system, this right of claim itself is not limited by the statute of limitations; [29] The latter refers to compensation for losses. Of course, the limitation of action applies, but the amount of compensation for infringement losses calculated forward within two years from the date when the patentee brings a lawsuit to the people's court is still within the limitation of action. Therefore, Article 2 of the Supreme People's Court stipulates that if the right exceeds two years, the people's court will order the defendant to stop the infringement and pay the estimated amount of infringement damages within two years before the date of prosecution, but this judgment should meet two preconditions: (1) The infringement continues at the time of prosecution; (2) The patent right is still valid at the time of prosecution. The significance of the Supreme People's Court's "Regulation 2" is that it clarifies the right of claim for real right against infringement (stopping infringement, eliminating influence, returning the original thing, restoring the original state, etc.). ) is not limited by the statute of limitations. (II) Expenses for using invention technology before authorization A special feature of invention patents is the temporary protection before authorization. Since invention patents are published in advance and have undergone substantial examination, the application for invention patents will be published within 18 months from the date of filing, and then other units or individuals can fully implement the disclosed invention technology. This behavior is not regarded as infringement before authorization. According to Article 13 of the Patent Law, the above-mentioned units or individuals shall pay appropriate fees, which is a temporary protection measure for the invention application. According to the relevant provisions of the implementation rules, the patentee may request payment before authorization, but if this request is rejected, the patentee can only request the patent administration department to handle it or bring a lawsuit to the court after authorization. Because after the publication of the application for a patent for invention, the substantive examination may not have started, or it has started but not ended, and it often takes 2 to 3 years or even longer to reach the authorization date. If the limitation period is calculated from the date when the patentee knows or should know about the act, it will happen that more than two years have passed when the patentee is qualified to sue. For this reason, the second paragraph of Article 62 of the Patent Law stipulates that if the patentee knows or should know before the date of authorization, the limitation shall be counted from the date of patent authorization. Therefore, the limitation of this kind of litigation has two starting points: the second is the date of patent authorization; Second, the patentee knows or should know the date of the act, and the latter is the actual starting point.