Define Patent Infringement
A patent grants an inventor or an inventor's assignee an exclusive legal right to make, use or sell the inventor's new device, process, substance or design for a limited period of time, according to the United States Patent and Trade Office, or USPTO. Patent infringement occurs when a person or company violates a patentee's rights.
Other People Are Reading
-
Infringing Acts
-
A person or company commits patent infringement by making, using, selling or offering to sell something that contains every element of a patent's claim without the patentee's authorization. To receive a patent grant, the patentee's patent application must disclose the patent's claims. The USPTO states that these claims "define the invention" and set forth which of the patent's "aspects are legally enforceable."
Direct Infringement
-
Direct infringement is the most common type of patent infringement. It occurs when a person or company makes, uses, sells or offers to sell a patented product without permission. Direct infringement also includes cases in which a device or process performs substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain the same result as the patented device or process. Known as the doctrine of equivalents, this legal principle protects patentees when an infringer makes only minor changes to a patented item.
-
Indirect Infringement
-
Infringement by inducement occurs when a person actually encourages or aids another in infringing a patent. Contributory infringement occurs when a person supplies a direct infringer with a part that has no substantial use except in the patented item. Vicarious infringement occurs when a person fails to stop an infringement while having authority over the infringing acts and a direct financial interest in the infringement.
Remedies
-
As a first step, a patentee often sends a cease-and-desist letter to a potential infringer. The letter includes a copy of the patent, provides an overview of the patent and lists the similarities between the patented item and the allegedly infringing item. A patentee usually then seeks relief in a federal court, asking the court to issue a temporary injunction to stop the infringement. The patentee may also sue the infringer, asking the court to issue a permanent injunction and to award damages to provide compensation for lost revenue, according to the USPTO.
Defenses
-
In patent infringement cases, defendants usually argue that their acts do not constitute infringement because they fall outside the scope of the patent's claims. To determine whether an infringement has occurred, the court will compare the elements of each claim of the plaintiff's patent to each element of the defendant's device or process. Defendants sometimes assert that a plaintiff's patent is invalid because its claims do not meet the statutory patentability requirements of novelty and nonobviousness or because the patent's application contains fraudulent information.
-
