How Do Utility Patent Lawsuits Work?
A patent issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants the patent's holder the right to prevent others from making the patented item or using the patented method. This is known as "practicing the patent." If another person practices the patent without permission from the patent holder, the holder may sue for patent infringement. Patent infringement lawsuits are common in the case of utility patents, which cover useful items.
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Elements of Utility Patent Infringement
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Generally, a utility patent is infringed upon when someone who is not the owner of the patent makes, imports, uses, or sells a product falling under the patent, in the country where the patent is issued, without the patent owner's permission.
In the U.S., each utility patent contains one or more "claims." A claim is a short statement describing one specific aspect of the patented article. To infringe on the patent, a product must fall under at least one of the claims; in patent law, the claim is said to "read on" the product. If a claim does not "read on" the product, the product is not infringing upon that claim, although it may infringe on other claims in the patent.
Limitations on Utility Patent Lawsuits
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A utility patent lawsuit for infringement must be brought in a United States district court within six years from the date of infringement. Waiting longer than six years will result in the case being time-barred, and the patent owner will be considered to have "ratified," or granted implicit permission to, the infringer to use the patented object or process.
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Defenses to Utility Patent Suits
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A person sued for infringing a utility patent may offer a number of defenses, including that the infringer was not practicing the patent; the infringer did not practice the patent in any place where the owner held a patent--for instance, the infringer practiced the patent in Canada, but the owner only has a U.S. patent; the patent has expired; the patent is invalid, because it covers material that's not patentable, is missing information, or has another defect; the infringer has a license under the patent to practice the patent; or the patent holder is practicing the patent in a way that infringes on a patent held by the infringer. In this case, the accused infringer is usually seeking a "cross-license," in which each of two separate patent holders grants the other the right to use his patent.
Types of Utility Patent Suits
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Each utility patent lawsuit falls into one of four broad categories: direct, indirect, contributory, or literal infringement.
Direct infringement occurs when a product is manufactured, used, imported, or sold by someone who is not the patent holder, without the patent holder's permission. The infringement must be willful; that is, the infringing party must intend to use another's patented material without obtaining permission. Willful infringement is most easily spotted when someone continues to use a patented item even after receiving notice from the patent holder that his use is infringing.
Indirect infringement occurs when the infringing party does not manufacture, use, import, or sell the infringing product himself, but helps or encourages another person to infringe the patent.
Contributory infringement is a specific type of indirect infringement. Contributory infringement occurs when a supplier gives a part or tool to another party, and that part or tool can only be used to infringe another person's patent.
Literal infringement is the direct copying of language in a patent or published patent application to describe another person's product, usually in that person's patent application. A part that does not commit literal infringement might still infringe via the "doctrine of equivalents," which states that an item infringes on a patent when it does substantially the same thing in substantially the same way as the patented item, even if the language used to describe the two is not identical.
Enforcement
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The two most common types of judgments against patent infringers are money judgments and injunctions. An infringer may be required to pay damages to the patent holder, including compensation for any revenue the patent holder may have lost due to the infringement. The infringer may also be required to pay royalties on his own infringing use of the patent.
In addition to damages, judges will in some cases issue a permanent injunction against the infringer. A permanent injunction is a court order to stop the infringer from practicing the patent in any way. A patent holder may also request a preliminary injunction at the start of the case. To receive a preliminary injunction, the patent holder must demonstrate that continued infringement of the patent will cause harm to the patent holder, that granting the injunction will not harm the public, and that the patent holder has a "substantial likelihood" of winning the case.
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