How To Deal With Patent Infringement

Posted by Sheryl Sanchez on October 19, 2010 under Copyright Law | Be the First to Comment

Patents provide legal validity to the right of an inventor to prevent unscrupulous individuals from making use of his or her invention for their personal gains. They permit the inventor to take legal action against any person or firm that is caught making such illegal use of his product or the pr

ocess for its manufacture. However, you should keep certain things in mind when going for a legal action to deal with such an infringement.

Firstly, you are needed to ensure that your patented product has been replicated literally. This is to say that your original product should have been copied in all its features including the apparently minor ones. Although in special cases where some of the aspects of the invention have not been imitated, it can still be treated as an infringement. However, you will have to provide valid proof that the essential aspects of the infringing product are similar to the patented product in all respects and produce the same result as the patented product.

Secondly, you ought to have some kind of direct connection with the patent in order to file a suit against the infringer. In other words, you have to be the owner or licensee of the product for being eligible to defend the product. You would also be required to file a lawsuit within the time period stipulated by the limitation law of the state, after which any claim would become invalid.

You can take legal action against the manufacturer as well as the user of the product that you see as infringing your product, but you can do so only within the time stipulated for validity of a patent according to the law. No unauthorized usage of the product can be considered a deliberate infringement after the lapse of the patent.

Regardless of the strict liability principle that patents are governed by, carrying out research work by using a patented product does not amount to an infringement under the patent laws for most countries.

Discover more about trademark registration Singapore and discover how does a patent lawyer and IP protection increase the net worth of your business very fast. Check here for free reprint licence: How To Deal With Patent Infringement.