วิเคราะห์ระบบระบบการคัดค้านสิทธิบัตรของต่างประเทศ

Abstract

Patent system is one of the major instruments of government to promote innovation by granting exclusive rights to patent owner for a limited period of time. In exchange, this requires full disclosure of the invention in the form of knowledge and technology dissemination to general public. In order to ensure the utmost benefit to society, the patent system lays down rigorous requirements on the process of patent search and examination. However, in reality, it may nevertheless happen that an invention that does not fully meet the requirements obtains a patent. Therefore, the patent examination process requires public involvement by allowing third parties, who possess information and gain insight into that particular kind of knowledge, to submit information in complementing the resources available to the patent office, by opposing the patent application at before or after granted stage. This would significantly enhance the credibility of the granted patent.

This article will focus on the patent opposition system based on the study of the international obligations and various opposition procedures available in other countries; mainly pre-grant opposition, post-grant opposition, and submission of information by 3rd parties. The main objective is to analyze pros and cons of each mechanism for uses as a guideline in developing and designing the future Thai patent opposition system.