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Patent misuse |
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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. This umbrella term usually describes:
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. Historically, courts were willing to entertain a patent misuse defense for patent owners who never undertook any commercial use and solely sought out infringers.citation needed Recent decisions have held it is not patent misuse to enforce rights to a patent, and enforcement is permissible irrespective of any use or non-use by the owner.1
The United States Supreme Court established the patent misuse doctrine in Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Mfg. Co., 243 U.S. 502 (1917).
The scope of the patent misuse doctrine is today limited by (d):
| “ | No patent owner otherwise entitled to relief for infringement or contributory infringement of a patent shall be denied relief or deemed guilty of misuse or illegal extension of the patent right by reason of his having done one or more of the following:
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