생략발명과 특허침해

An invention that omits inessential elements from patented claim and the patent infringement thereof

There are two fundamental principle to judge patent infringement. Those are all elements rule and the doctrine of equivalents. According to all elements rule, if even one element is absent from an accused product or process, there is no infringement. However, there is a question at issue about whether an accused product or process that omits inessential or immaterial elements from a patented claim can infringe the patent or not. As to this question, I concluded that patent law requires the patentee to specify particularly what he claims to be new, and if he claims a combination of certain elements or parts, we cannot declare that any one of these elements is immaterial. The patentee makes them all material by the restricted form of his claim. All elements of a claim are "essential" or "material." So a product or process that omits any element from a patented claim does not constitute patent infringement, even if the omitted element is not essential or material. However, we can imagine there is one exception for this rule. If the omitted element from the patented claim can be found in the remainder elements in the product or process, the product or process which omits the element from the patented claim can infringe the patented claim. Because the doctrine of equivalents can be applied to no corresponding element such as this case, despite the fact that the doctrine of equivalents should be generally applied to the corresponding element of accused product or process.