In United States patent law, patent misuse is an affirmative defense used in patent litigation when a defendant has been accused to have infringed a patent. It has also been used to mitigate damages following a finding of infringement or justify a failure to pay contracted-for royalties. This umbrella term usually describes any of the following:
- a violation of antitrust laws
- improper expansion of the scope or term of the patent
- inequitable conduct in the procurement or enforcement of a patent (sometimes termed "non-purgeable misuse").
In the United States, a patent is a statutory right that grants the patentee the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling a patented invention. Under current U.S. patent law it is not patent misuse simply to enforce rights to a patent, in good faith, and enforcement is permissible irrespective of any use or non-use by the owner.
The United States Supreme Court established the underlying "unclean hands" principle of the patent misuse doctrine in Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Mfg. Co. The specific rule that similar misuse of a patent is a defense to an infringement suit comes from Morton Salt Co. v. G.S. Suppiger Co.,
Most types of misuse can be "purged" by abandoning the practice and causing its effects to dissipate. Fraud or inequitable conduct in patent procurement, however, is not purgeable.
Read more about Patent Misuse: Statutory Limitation
Famous quotes containing the words patent and/or misuse:
“The cigar-box which the European calls a “lift” needs but to be compared with our elevators to be appreciated. The lift stops to reflect between floors. That is all right in a hearse, but not in elevators. The American elevator acts like the man’s patent purge—it works”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Physical pleasure is a sensual experience no different from pure seeing or the pure sensation with which a fine fruit fills the tongue; it is a great unending experience, which is given us, a knowing of the world, the fullness and the glory of all knowing. And not our acceptance of it is bad; the bad thing is that most people misuse and squander this experience and apply it as a stimulant at the tired spots of their lives and as distraction instead of a rallying toward exalted moments.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926)