Patent Infringement

INNOVATION IS the motivating force in most businesses. Without new inventions and ideas, companies would be unable to keep up with competition and would stagnate. This has been true since America was made up of 13 separate colonies, and the United States of America was only a dream for visionaries. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who played a role in forming both the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the United States Constitution in 1787, is often credited with discovering electricity.

In truth, Franklin invented the lightening rod that led to discoveries about how electricity works. He also invented bifocals, the odometer, and the Franklin stove. Inventors such as Franklin have an intellectual property right to own their inventions, and this right was considered so important that patent protection was included in the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 8). Patent protection allows individuals and businesses to control who uses their inventions and provides them with recognition and monetary benefits. When others violate those rights, patent infringement occurs.

The U.S. Patent Office was created to administer all laws relating to federal patents and to advise the president and the Department of Commerce on all matters related to protecting patents and copyrights, and to offer advice on dealing with the ways that intellectual property is related to trade both domestically and internationally. In 1988, the name of the patenting agency was changed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to reflect the growing importance of protecting trademarks as intellectual property.

The PTO issues three types of patents: plant patents, design patents, and utility patents. Plant patents are given for new plants that have been asexually reproduced. Design patents are assigned for the design of a product, like a sofa or a beverage dispenser. Most patents approved by the Patent and Trademark Office are utility patents that protect inventions such as machines, processes, and improvements to existing machines and processes.

In addition to approving and renewing patents, the PTO maintains existing records of all federal and international patents to assist applicants who always bear the responsibility of searching for existing or similar patents before a patent application is filed. Once a patent application is approved, the owner of the patent has the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the patented invention as long as the patent is valid.

The Patent and Trademark Office has no authority to hear cases of patent infringement because that authority is given to various courts of jurisdiction. Patent infringement occurs when another[Page 600] party makes use of a patented product or invention by making, using, or selling the invention without the patent owner's permission and without paying any licensing fees that may be required. Patent owners have a legal right to sue in order to protect their inventions. However, patent infringement is much harder to prove than infringement of trademarks or copyrights, which are more concrete. Patent infringement cases may be expensive, and they way take years to wind their way through the courts. In 2002, for example, less than 3,000 patent infringement cases were filed.

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