Patent
A “patent” is a grant of a right from a government to stop others from making, using, selling, or importing whatever is described in the patent. Patents are granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and are enforced in federal court.
- U.S. federal law allows for three kinds of patents:
- Utility patents on inventions (35 USC 101).
- Design patents on industrial designs (35 USC 171).
- Plant patents on plants (35 USC 161).
Frustrated engineer-inventors
If you are an engineer, steeped in years of education and practice in the art of engineering analysis and applied mathematics, then there is a fat chance that patent law will deeply frustrate you. Even though most patent attorneys have some kind of science background, and perhaps most patents deal with technical inventions, patent infringement is not a technical subject but a murky area of law.
Fundamentally, the issue is that it is difficult to describe and analyze an invention through the written word, yet the written word is what controls in a patent case. Add to this the lawyer’s finely-honed ability to warp the written word, and you now have a patent infringement suit.
Unexpected Defendants
Yes, you can be sued for infringing a patent that is not exactly the same as your product or service.
How close does the patent have to be to your product for there to be patent infringement? That’s what the judge or jury will decide during the lawsuit, and lawsuits are a pay-to-play competition.