The patent system aims to encourage innovation by giving applicants or patentees certain rights and requiring them to fulfill certain obligations. The filing date is the starting point of the rights and obligations of the applicant or patentee, and the patent application documents submitted on the filing date are the basis for delineating the rights and interests of the applicant and the public.
If the modification of the patent application documents by the applicant destroys this foundation, it will make the applicant gain improper benefits through modification and damage the legal security of the public who rely on the original application documents. On the other hand, the written description itself has natural limitations or one-sidedness.
Therefore, the patent application documents submitted by the applicant on the filing date cannot perfectly describe its true meaning, and it is impossible and unnecessary to describe its invention and creation in detail in the patent application documents. Therefore, if only the words clearly recorded in the patent application documents are used as the basis for delineating the rights and interests of the applicant and the public.
Ignoring the true meaning of the applicant's invention and creation in the patent application documents can not give the applicant more reasonable protection of rights and interests, nor does it conform to the legislative purpose of the patent law to encourage invention and creation, improve innovation ability and promote scientific and technological progress and economic and social development.
Extended data:
The legislative intent of Article 33 of the Patent Law is actually based on the fact that the rights and interests relationship between the applicant and the public began on the filing date, so it is necessary and necessary to express and fix the inventions and creations completed by the applicant on the filing date, so as to determine the basis for the division of rights and interests between the applicant and the public.
In short, the applicant is allowed to modify the patent application documents based on its true meaning on the filing date, but it is not allowed to make improper profits for the applicant and damage the legal safety of the public who rely on the original application documents.
The application of Article 33 of the Patent Law should not be limited to clearly recorded written information, but should objectively determine the "scope recorded in the original specification and claims" based on the legislative intent of Article 33 of the Patent Law. This definite process is the so-called "direct and unquestionable" judgment process.
According to the information clearly recorded in the original application documents, the set of technical information objectively and accurately expressed in the application documents, which is directly and undoubtedly determined by the technicians in this field from the perspective of the applicant's true meaning expression, constitutes the maximum range that the applicant is allowed to modify, that is, the range recorded in the original specification and claims referred to in Article 33 of the Patent Law.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-People's Republic of China (PRC) Patent Law
References:
People's Network-Understanding and Typical Application of Article 33 of the Patent Law