Every company should do all the things it can to avoid patent disputes completely. But how can you avoid and prevent it from happening to your business if you don’t know what a patent is and how an infringement occurs, right? You don’t have to fret, though, because you’ve come to the right place as you will discover everything (even the terms) you need to know about it here.
When you manufacture, import, sell, or use without permission a product or intellectual property that has been invented by someone else, you can be sued for patent infringement. All the data regarding patents are easily accessible since this information is available to the public. That’s why it’s really quite simple to avoid patent disputes or vice versa.
How Patent Disputes and Claims Work
Any person who doesn’t know how to check for patents can easily make mistakes. However, that reasoning will not save anyone from the court laws. In fact, it may even cause your business to experience bankruptcy.
Once the holder of the patent sues you for patent infringement, you may be ordered by the court to stop all activities pertaining to it. And in most cases, you may be asked by the court to pay the patent holder with monetary awards as a penalty. Patented products and ideas commonly have multiple parts or sections, so you may also encounter multiple infringement claims for a single patent.
If you are the patent holder and want to file a claim involving patent infringement, remember that you must be able to prove and demonstrate that your invented product or idea was used by the other party without your permission. Any claim should start with consulting your primary resource – your patent file.
In filing a claim for patent infringement, you are claiming that another party has violated patent laws regarding your product or idea. But first, you must provide solid proof that the person indeed used your patented product without your permission. You should note, though, that even if the party manufactured a product slightly different from your patented one, you might still sue for patent infringement.
If you need to file a patent infringement claim, you will find that there are varying processes and methods involved. In such a case that the party accused of patent infringement has used the patented idea for a year or more before the actual filing of your original patent, that person may be found not guilty.
Understanding Patent Infringements
If you want to analyze patent disputes, you will first need to have an understanding of and be familiar with the key terms:
- Infringer – someone who is accused of infringing on another person’s patent
- Contributory infringer – a person who assists in selling or creating the contested product involved in the patent infringement claim
- Multiple infringers – this term is used when more than one person or party is involved in the patent infringement
What Makes a Patent Infringement
You should check everything before determining whether or not an infringement has been made. The patent information will include which claims are owned by each inventor, as well as a numbered list of all patent claims. If you want success in your case involving patent infringement, you must verify and prove all claims listed in the patent.
In addition to the claims, there is also a section in the patent in which the inventor explains how the general public can use the invention. You’ll also find clarifications on the meaning of each claim in this section. Understanding all these aspects will help illustrate the invented product.
Cases involving patents like utility, plant, and design need careful analysis. And if you want to thoroughly analyze any kind of infringement, you will have to check these sections.
Avoid Patent Infringement From Happening to You
Whether you own a company or have a patented invention yourself, it’s never a good thing to assume that you’re familiar with every patent on the planet. Even the experts cannot possibly be aware of every new patent or technology that are not yet available for public use or on the market. If you’re unsure, you can always count on law experts like Judge Sue Robinson so you can make sure that you’re not accidentally infringing on another party’s patent and vice versa.