Field-of-use Limitation

A field-of-use limitation is a provision in a patent license that limits the scope of what the patent owner authorizes a manufacturing licensee (that is, a licensee that manufactures a patented product or performs a patented process) to do in relation to the patent, by specifying a defined field of use -- that is, a defined field of permissible operation by the licensee. In addition to affirmatively specifying the field of use, the license may negatively specify a field or fields, by specifying fields of use from which the licensee is excluded.

By way of example, such a license might authorize a licensee to manufacture patented engines only for incorporation into trucks, or to manufacture a chemical only for sale to farmers (as contrasted with home gardeners). If the licensee exceeded the scope of the licensee, it would commit patent infringement. More generally, this kind of license permits the licensee to use the patented invention in some, but not all, possible ways in which the invention could be exploited. In an exclusive field-of-use license the licensee is the only person authorized to use the invention in the field of the license.

The concept of fields of use and field-of-use limitations is explained in the article The Doctrine of the General Talking Pictures Case. Field-of-use limitations in patent licenses may raise antitrust issues when such arrangements are used to allocate markets or create cartels.