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This right to obtain provisional damages requires a patent holder to show that (1) the infringing activities occurred after the publication of the patent application, (2) the patented claims are substantially identical to the claims in the published application, and (3) the infringer had "actual notice" of the published patent application.
Patent infringement is an unauthorized act of - for example - making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing for these purposes a patented product. Where the subject-matter of the patent is a process, infringement involves the act of using, offering for sale, selling or importing for these purposes at least the product obtained by the patented process. [1]
Designing around a patent can sometimes be a way to avoid infringing it. Companies or individuals who infringe on intellectual property rights produce counterfeit or pirated products and services. [3] An example of a counterfeit product is if a vendor were to place a well-known logo on a piece of clothing that said company did not produce.
The long history of patents and strong protection of patent holders contributes to abuse of the system by patent trolls, which are largely absent in other countries. [citation needed] The US also has an extensive body of case law comprising federal court precedents that have accumulated over more than 200 years.
Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machinery & Chemical Corp., 382 U.S. 172 (1965), was a 1965 decision of the United States Supreme Court that held, for the first time, that enforcement of a fraudulently procured patent violated the antitrust laws and provided a basis for a claim of treble damages if it caused a substantial anticompetitive effect.
Patent misuse is a patent owner's improper use of patent rights, speaking very generally, to expand the scope or term of the patent. Examples of such patent misuse include forcing customers to agree to pay royalties on unpatented products or to pay royalties on an expired patent.
American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) - Patent Registry Scams; Australian Patent Office - Warning!Unsolicited IP Services; Belgian Patent Office - Warning to inventors about fraudulent registration services, in (in Dutch) or (in French) (with link to a Decision of January 14, 2005 of a Belgian Appeal Court (Brussels, R.G. 2003/AR/2192 and 2003/AR/2356) (pdf) - in French)
In United States patent law, inequitable conduct is a breach of the applicant's duty of candor and good faith during patent prosecution or similar proceedings by misrepresenting or omitting material information with the specific intent to deceive the United States Patent and Trademark Office.