Patents help an inventor to check unlawful use of his or her invention by others for their own economic advantage in an illegal and unauthorized way. They allow the inventor to sue a person or company for trying to make such unauthorized use of the product or the process. However, you must keep certain things in mind when going for a legal action to deal with such an infringement.
Firstly, you are required to make sure that your patented product has been replicated literally. In other words, it must infringe all the major features of your patented product. Although in certain exceptional cases where some of the features of the product have not been copied, it can still be treated as an infringement. However, this requires evidence to the effect that there are enough similarities and that the end result that the infringing product creates is notably similar to the genuine product.
Secondly, you should have some direct connection with the patented product to be able to prosecute the infringer, and you should not be a complete outsider. In other words, you have to be the legitimate owner or licensee of the patent for being eligible to defend the product. You also have to consider the law of limitation of the jurisdiction and take legal action within the time stipulated for such cases, as otherwise the claim would be treated as invalid.
You can take legal action against the maker as well as the user of the product that you consider to be an imitation of your product, but you can do so only within the time stipulated for validity of a patent according to the law. After the expiry of the patent, no use of the product can be termed as an infringement against the patent.
Last but not the least, though patents stand on the principle of strict liability, you should remember that the use of a patent for research purposes is allowed and it does not constitute an infringement.
Firstly, you are required to make sure that your patented product has been replicated literally. In other words, it must infringe all the major features of your patented product. Although in certain exceptional cases where some of the features of the product have not been copied, it can still be treated as an infringement. However, this requires evidence to the effect that there are enough similarities and that the end result that the infringing product creates is notably similar to the genuine product.
Secondly, you should have some direct connection with the patented product to be able to prosecute the infringer, and you should not be a complete outsider. In other words, you have to be the legitimate owner or licensee of the patent for being eligible to defend the product. You also have to consider the law of limitation of the jurisdiction and take legal action within the time stipulated for such cases, as otherwise the claim would be treated as invalid.
You can take legal action against the maker as well as the user of the product that you consider to be an imitation of your product, but you can do so only within the time stipulated for validity of a patent according to the law. After the expiry of the patent, no use of the product can be termed as an infringement against the patent.
Last but not the least, though patents stand on the principle of strict liability, you should remember that the use of a patent for research purposes is allowed and it does not constitute an infringement.
About the Author:
Discover more about Trademarks and learn how does an Patents protection increase the net worth of your business very fast. You are welcome to reprint this article - but get your own unique content version here.
