論專利的開放授權制度

Abstract

本論文主要在探討專利的開放授權制度在法律上的意義、性質以及實際在市場運作上的可能性。論文在架構上主要可以分成三個主要部分：開放授權制度的介紹、此制度在法律上的意義及性質、以及整合分析制度施行上可能造成的利弊得失與產業上的應用。開放授權制度係指對特定專利具有處分權利之人同意將特定專利的實施權能有前提地授權予任意他人實施的一個過程。而在分類上，得依被授權人是否有資格上的限制分成開放性開放授權以及閉鎖性開放授權兩個種類。前者再依是否有法律明文規定分成法定以及意定兩者，後者則主要以防禦性專利授權與以專利轉讓為內容之授權模式為主要的討論對象。在法律關係的分析部分，內部關係上本文將開放授權模式下所形成的授權關係定性為契約行為，專利權人所發出的聲明屬於要約的意思表示，被授權人所為的義務行為則為承諾的意思表示，而契約成立的時間點則是在被授權人發生承諾意思表示之時。在外部關係上，除了一般性授權所具有的性質外，開放性以及閉鎖性開放授權契約所具備的共同特徵為繼續性及合作型競爭性，而在條款內容的規定不盡相同的狀況下，對於屬人性、雙務性、有償性等特徵則是應視個案規定狀況分別討論。在產業運作上，開放授權制度有市場擴張性、效率性之優點，但在施行上可能會有對價不平衡、專利品質不一以及無法確立市場對應性等缺點。在個案分析的部分則是引入產品生命週期理論分析最適合採用此授權制度的產業類型，並以Tesla於2014年所提出的開放聲明作為主要的分析對象。最後再綜合比較法以及本文的討論結果分析我國是否應納入開放授權制度，以及對我國專利法第63-1條修正草案進行相關的檢討。

The paper tries to dig into the legal meaning and property of open patent licensing system as well as the possibility of implementing it practically. The introduction to the licensing methods, the legal concepts and the results of the application are three major topics that are discussed and analyzed. Open patent licensing is a kind of license that the licensor allows his specific patent to be used by the public, and the one who wants to use the patent legally should meet the obligations mentioned by the licensor in advance. On the other hand, the open patent licensing system could be divided into two main catagories, including the open one, which allows anyone to be a licensee, and the closed one, which only allows the one who has already participated in the specific network to be a qualified licensee. Besides, the former category could be divided into two main divisions, voluntary open-licensing and legal open-licensing., whereas Defensive Patent Licensing (DPL) and License on Transfer (LOT) are the two main sections in the latter category. When it comes to the legal analysis, the characterization of the relationship between the licensor and the licensee is deemed to be a contractual behavior. The announcement of willing to give out the patent is an offer, while the obligation taken by the licensee is an acceptance. The contract shall be constituted at the moment the licensee performs his duty. Moreover, except for the property of a general licensing contract, continuity and Coopetition are the two common characters in both kinds of open licensing, and whether the contract is personal, mutual, or onerous should depend on the respective clauses and be judged case by case. At last, under the discussion of the application in the market, the open patent licensing system holds the pros of market-expansion and efficiency, and the cons of imbalanced consideration, inconsistent patent quality and lack of market correspondence. In the case study, the paper used Product life cycle theory as the basis to analyze the most suitable industry that could adopt the open patent licensing strategy and take Tesla’s open patent announcement as an example. In the last part of this paper, with the results of the analysis and the comparison made among different legal systems, whether and how Taiwan should take in the open patent licensing system is reviewed.