In short, the exhaustion of patent right means that the patentee uses his own patent as much as possible, so that the patent right can be better reflected through licensing, that is, the patentee can play a greater role, so that the patentee can obtain more economic benefits. But, of course, if it is licensed, it is necessary to unify others to use his patent, and the use is not controlled by the patentee, and the patentee can also transform his own economy through the patented product.
Generally speaking, a patent has an exclusive license and may not be used without the permission of the patentee. Unless the patent has expired, users will be punished by law, and the degree of patent exhaustion will be different. The way of patent licensing is good, but if the patent is directly transferred, then the patent transfer in this way will directly transfer the patent to others, that is to say, the patent is not his own. At present, the patent transaction in China market is very hot, which deserves our attention.
That is to say, after the patented product is sold for the first time with the authorization of the patentee, the patentee loses the control and dominance over the resale and use of the patented product. Therefore, the exhaustion of patent rights is also called the principle of first sale. The core of this principle is: under the premise of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of patentees, maintaining the normal market transaction order and protecting the legitimate interests of operators and general consumers are conducive to the normal development of trade activities and preventing patent rights from hindering the market circulation of domestic commodities. The exhaustion of patent rights is aimed at every specific patented product legally put on the market, and will not lead to the termination of the patent right itself. Therefore, the exact meaning of patent exhaustion should be: the patentee no longer has control or dominance over the sale or use of patented products legally put on the market.
There are two ways to determine the scope of application of patent exhaustion, namely domestic exhaustion, international exhaustion and or regional exhaustion. Countries all over the world have generally established the principle of domestic exhaustion of patent rights in domestic legislation, but the principle of international exhaustion has not been clearly defined. The reason why the application scope of the principle of international exhaustion of patent rights is not clearly defined is mainly based on the regional principle of intellectual property rights. In other words, due to the differences of intellectual property rights in different countries, intellectual property rights obtained in one country do not mean that they are naturally obtained in another country. Similarly, the rights of intellectual property owners are exhausted by selling according to the laws of one country, but the same intellectual property rights they enjoy in other countries are not necessarily exhausted.
In China, patent inventors or units should actively apply in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations. After the patent certificate is approved, no individual or unit can continue to use this kind of patent, and can continue to use it only after it is approved and licensed by the patent inventor.
For the patentee in our country, the patentee has the right to dispose of the patent that he has applied for registration protection, but it should be noted that the patent right also has a protection period. After the expiration of the patent right period, the patentee's patent right terminates, and at this time, the patent automatically enters the public domain of our country.