The short answer is no—a design patent application cannot be infringed. Only a granted design patent can be infringed. However, be aware that a design patent application remains secret until it does grant as a patent which is unlike a nonprovisional application. Because of this, if you do find out that you are infringing on someone else's patent, you won't have much time to … [Read more...]
Patent Marking: Everything you wanted to know
Patent marking involves affixing the patent number of your patent to your product or packaging. The benefit of patent marking is that the public is given constructive notice of your patent.Infringers cannot claim ignorance of your patent to avoid liability. Infringers are liable for patent infringement as soon as possible even if they don’t have actual knowledge of your … [Read more...]
Can I Copy My Competitor’s Product?
Development of new product lines Businesses track new products and developments of their competitors. They attend trade shows, receive information from mutual clients about new products offered by others. In response, companies may attempt to introduce a competitive alternative. In doing so, they may reverse engineer (i.e., purchase and take apart) their competitors … [Read more...]
Irreparable harm easier to prove for grant of patent based injunction
One of the difficulties of securing a patent based injunction was that it was difficult to prove that the harm to the patent owner was irreparable or that monetary compensation was not enough to make the patent owner whole due to the infringement of the patent. In Metalcraft v. Toro Co. (Fed. Cir. 2017), the Federal Circuit provided a basis for establishing irreparable harm … [Read more...]
Active inducement of infringement in physician patient relationships
Background In Eli Lilly v. Teva (Fed. Cir. 2017), the patent owner (Eli Lilly) sued Teva under a theory of active inducement of infringement. In particular, the patent owner asserted that Teva induced others to infringe Eli Lilly’s patent (U.S. Pat. No. 7,772,209). Teva was not accused of directly infringing the patent itself, but instead was accused of indirectly infringing … [Read more...]
Process patent blocks importation of product
1. Process patent may be used to block importation of products made with patented method steps Everything begins and ends with the claim set since the claims define the scope of protection afforded under the patent and to a large extent also drive the structure of the patent application. The claims are generally directed to the product or process of the use, manufacture, etc. … [Read more...]
Federal Circuit defines competitive injury for false patent marking
False patent marking occurs when a company marks a product as "patent pending" or lists a patent number when no valid patent or application actually exists for the product. This practice is sometimes used to unfairly deter competition. Occasionally, companies make innocent mistakes, inadvertently marking products as patent-protected. (For proper patent marking practices, see … [Read more...]
Attacking patent claims as indefinite made easier
In Interval Licensing, LLC v. AOL, Inc. (Fed. Cir. Sept. 10, 2014), the Federal Circuit invalidated a patent claim as being indefinite under a new standard set forth by the Supreme Court of the United States in Biosig v. Nautilus (S. Ct. April 28, 2014). Interval Licensing is instructional not just for evaluating indefiniteness under the new standard, but also on how to write … [Read more...]