添附、看作、專利進步性（上）

Accession, Seeing as, and Nonobviousness in Patent Law

添附作為財產法的一般原理，在美國財產法學界已有具啟發性的研究。本文以添附原理解釋專利進步性。就添附第一法則，添附是尋找資源的合適管理人的過程，但在決定輸出資源的歸屬時，往往需要使用代理變數。民法關於添附的規定、以及專利法的進步性，都具有代理變數的運用。進步性原本是要測量發明人的貢獻，但因貢獻難以測量，故轉而以差異作為代理變數。本文並以維根斯坦的「看作」、以及奎因的整體論哲學，探討差異如何判斷。就添附第二法則，本文討論專利權人不必返還先前技術之「價額」的理由。

American property law scholars, such as Merrill and Smith, have proposed inspiring studies of the doctrine of accession as a general principle of property law. This article examines patent law’s nonobviousness requirement in terms of accession. Accession is a process of searching for the fit manager of resources. In assigning the initial entitlement, accession often uses proxy measurement. The Civil Law’s provisions on accession (Articles 811 and 812) and nonobviousness in patent law are all examples of using proxy measurement. Nonobviousness was meant to measure the inventor’s contributions. Yet due to the difficulty of measuring contributions, patent law adopted difference as a proxy variable for contribution. This article borrows from Wittgenstein’s “seeing as” and Quine’s holism to explore how difference is determined. The last part of this article discusses why the patent owner does not have to pay back the value deriving from using prior arts.