Patent infringement is a serious thing and can end up costing you and your company a lot of money in legal fees, damages and restitution. The unfortunate thing about patent infringement is that it can happen by accident, and commonly does.
Typically when someone manufactures or sells an item that uses patented technology that person would be in infringement of the patent. If patent infringement does occur, the unauthorized user may receive a cease-and-desist letter by the owner of the patent. The patent owner might be seeking an order to stop the unauthorized user from manufacturing or selling the item that contains the patented technology and they may also be seeking damages and restitution, which can be costly.
Patents are typically only valid in the country where they are registered, mostly because they are very difficult to enforce on a worldwide scale. So for example if a patent has been filed within the US, American companies or persons are prohibited from using the patented technology in their products, unless of course they have permission from the patent owner in the form of a licence. However, a company or person from another country may be able to use that same patented technology in their own products as long as the products stay within their own country.
If you have been accused of patent infringement and have recently received a cease-and-desist letter the following 5 steps should be taken care of right away:
1) The very first thing you need to do is to find out what the patent number of the technology is that you have been accused of infringing upon.
2) After you have acquired the patent number check to make sure that the patent is actually properly registered.
3) The next step is to confirm if the person or company that sent the cease-and-desist notice is actually the registered owner of the patent.
4) If everything checks out you should ask for a copy of the patent specifications so you can study them in detail.
5) If you determine that the patent owner actually has a legitimate case against you, you should either change the technology of your product or attempt to procure a license from the patent owner.
However, if you don't want to go through the hassle of being sent a cease-and-desist letter you have the option to make sure you don't infringe on a patent from the very beginning of your product research. Although it is very time consuming, especially in the beginning stages of product development, to research every aspect of your technology looking for potential patents that you might infringe, it may be worth it in the long run. That is of course if you have the resources, both time and money, to spend.
If you have the money available to you, you might want to follow this other proactive option, which would be to purchase patent infringement insurance. Just like any insurance policy, patent infringement insurance is provided by an insurance company and can be purchased by either the inventor or by a third party. This insurance policy will cover any risks of accidentally infringing on a patent. The policy will cover all the legal costs for parties, those being sued and the ones doing the suing. It must be noted however that this option is very rarely used, as patent infringement insurance can be very costly.
Author Resource:-
Corey Rozon is a freelance business writer in Ottawa.
This article about patent infringement was written for Convergent Intellectual Property, a Canadian company specializing in intellectual property services.
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