It does not matter which industry your firm operates in, it is necessary to watch all the activities of the competitors to remain safe. This makes it easy to pick out any patent infringement activity that may harm the reputation of your brand.

A patent owner has the legal right to exclude others from manufacturing, using, or selling the invention. In other words, a third person cannot manufacture, use, or sell the invention described in the claims of your patent without your permission.

Thus, you may claim monetary damages in federal court and stop the infringing behaviour if you discover any infringement activity by a third person.

Now the question is how to prove the occurrence of patent infringement?

What are the steps that you may take to ensure that your patent is enforceable against infringement?

Also Read: Patent Monitoring Services: Track Your Patent

Patent Infringement: How to Prove?

You must show 3 things in order to enforce the patent against the infringement:

Ownership of a valid patent.
Infringement proof against the infringer.
The infringing product or process includes unique features of at least 1 independent claim.

Detecting the infringement:

A third party cannot manufacture, use, or sell the invention described in the claims of your patent without your permission. Also, you must keep it in mind that the act of infringement must occur in the same country where you have filed the patent. There are only a few limited circumstances or cases where the infringement activities outside the country are considered relevant. However, there is a narrow chance to overwrite the general rule.

The main focus is to reveal the identity of the party that commits the infringing act. In most of the cases, there are a number of different parties that collaborate together to manufacture a final product or provide a service. Thus, it becomes an excuse for each individual party that it was not from their end.

Therefore, you require proper evidence against every party whether they are providing infringing services or selling infringing products. The sales data, advertisements, SEC filings, product catalogues, and other types of information might prove beneficial to you in order to find out the real culprit.

Also Read: Patent Watch Service: Types & Advantages

Proving the Infringement:

You must support your infringement claim with proper evidence. It is not enough to just state that patent infringement has occurred. You cannot point directly towards infringing products or services without any proof. Moreover, the federal pleading standards for patent infringement have become stricter over the last decade. They require more specificity to initiate patent litigation in federal court.

In order to match these standards, you must perform detailed claim analysis and show the following:

Details about what your patent claims contain.
Differentiation between the original claims and the infringing elements of the product.

You must try to show it in a claim chart. Also, you must try to show that the infringing process or product has every step or component listed in at least 1 of your claims. Broad independent claims and few elements make it easier to show infringement.

Also Read: Patent Monitoring: A Primary Guide

Patent Infringement: Types

There are different types of patent infringement under U.S. law. The most basic types of patent infringement are Direct and Indirect. Indirect infringement is further divided into subcategories, Induced and Contributory.

Direct infringement:

In this type of infringement, the claims of the patent completely describe the infringing invention or the invention works on or performs the same function.

Indirect infringement:

In this type of infringement 1 entity assists another entity to create or provide a product or service that matches all the constraints of at least 1 independent claim in your patent.

There are 2 types of Indirect Infringement:

Induced infringement: In this, the infringer already knows about the patent, and then also directly infringes the patent.
Contributory infringement: In this, the infringer knowingly provides the information or component that helps the other party directly infringe the patent. However, the component doesn’t have any considerable non-infringing use.

Also Read: What are the Different Patent Watch Techniques?

Avoiding Patent Infringement: Patent Watch Services

The Patent watch helps you to keep a track of the latest technology or information about the innovations related to the industry you are into. Moreover, these important updates motivate the research and the development department of the firm to think something more productive.

A Patent watch provides an update regarding new Patents and Patent Applications. Thus, it gives you enough time to act against the Patents that may harm or infringe your Patent or invention. The main goal of the Patent watch is to avoid Infringement from either side.
You may keep an eye on the expired/abandoned Patents or the patents which may soon fall into the public domain. This enables you to fetch out the Patents which are safe for your use.
The patent watch helps you to modify your patent application or product in time if your technical team finds out that it is infringing on another patent or patent application. Thus, it avoids any legal action against you.
You not only get to know about the details of the new inventions but may also seek advantages from the information available to you.

Need Protection from Patent Infringement? – The Patent Watch Company

Now you clearly understand how important it is to watch your patent. Infringements can occur at anytime and anywhere. It is your responsibility to enforce your IP rights, so you must keep a vigilant eye on the market and your competitors. Consider The Patent Watch Company, if you need the assistance of a professional. We cover numerous technology areas and have years of experience under our belt in the monitoring domain. Our monitoring focuses on patent/non-patent literature (by patent/patent publication numbers) as well as general marketing activities like product launches, investments, etc. We also assure timely delivery and value for money in our services.

To grasp more of our services, reach out to us on The Patent Watch Company.

How to Avoid Patent Infringement?