Florida Patent Litigation Lawyer
Florida Patent, Copyright & Trademark Lawyers Providing Patent Litigation Services
When you have a valuable invention, it is important to patent it in order to protect yourself against infringement. When another party uses, sells, offers for sale, or imports your patented product, that party may be infringing on your patent. Accordingly, you may be able to file a patent infringement lawsuit against that party. The legal process that involves enforcing a patent is known as patent litigation. If you need assistance filing a lawsuit, an experienced Florida patent litigation lawyer can assist you.
What is a Patent?
To understand how patent litigation works and why it happens, it is important to learn more about patents and patent protection. Business owners often require protection for a variety of different works and unique products or services. Accordingly, it can become complicated to distinguish among terms like trademarks, service marks, copyrights, and patents. Each of these forms of protection comes with a particular duration, and they apply to different types of property and entities.
According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a patent is defined as “a limited duration property right relating to an invention… in exchange for public disclosure of the invention.” In general, there are two types of patents, utility patents, and design patents. Examples of patentable materials for a utility patent include the following:
- Machines;
- Manufactured articles;
- Industrial processes; and
- Chemical compositions.
In general, there are two types of patents: design patents, and utility patents and plant patents. Patents last anywhere from 14 years to 20 years depending upon the type of patent and when obtained. When you have a patent, that means you have the right to prevent other people from practicing your patented invention. Patents are granted by the USPTO.
How Does Patent Litigation Work?
When you own a patent and another person or entity manufactures or sells the patented product—in other words, infringes on your patent—without your permission, then you may be able to file a lawsuit. The process of filing the lawsuit and seeking to preclude another person from creating or selling your patented product is known as patent litigation. In this process, you are typically arguing that another party has infringed upon your patent, and you may be seeking more than one form of relief—from stopping the defendant from making or selling the product to damages.
To win a patent infringement claim, you will typically need to be able to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant infringed the patent by having used, made, sold, offered for sale, or imported the patented invention. The intellectual property attorneys at Perkins Law can help you with that analysis and presentation as they have tried numerous patent, trademark, and copyright infringement cases.
When you file a patent infringement claim, you should anticipate that the defendant may countersue or may offer one of many different types of defenses. Common defenses in patent infringement lawsuits include but are not limited to the following:
- Defendant did not actually infringe the patent;
- You have an invalid patent;
- You misled the USPTO when seeking the patent; and/or
- You violated antitrust or unfair competition laws.
To win a patent infringement claim, you will typically need to be able to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant used, made, sold, offered for sale, or imported the patented invention.
Contact a Florida Patent Litigation Lawyer
When you have patented an invention, you should be able to expect that no other individuals or businesses will be able to make, import, sell or offer for sale your patented invention without your permission. If someone does infringe your patent, you may be able to initiate patent litigation in order to seek a remedy. An experienced Florida patent litigation attorney can assist with your case. Contact Perkins Law for more information.
