Patent Infringement Claims and Defenses: A Practical Guide for Businesses and Counsel

79 questions on patent infringement claims and defenses, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Can a patent be valid but not infringed, or infringed but invalid?
• Can "patent pending" support an infringement suit?
• Does having a better product avoid infringement?
• How did Halo change the standard for enhanced damages?
• How did the AIA tighten joinder in patent cases?
• How did Therasense tighten inequitable conduct?
• How does an invalidity defense differ from a license or exhaustion defense?
• How does eBay's injunction test depend on who the patentee is?
• How does ITC infringement doctrine differ from district court?
• How does obviousness differ from anticipation as an invalidity attack?
• How does the Alice framework work?
• How does the all-elements rule generate a real non-infringement position?
• How does the coffee-pod example draw the contributory-infringement line?
• How does the marking statute limit damages?
• How do express and implied licenses defeat an infringement claim?
• How is claim construction reviewed on appeal?
• How narrow is the experimental use defense?
• In what order should an accused party read an asserted patent?
• Is a good-faith belief that the patent is invalid a defense to inducement?
• Is an injunction automatic after a patentee wins?
• Is laches still a defense to patent damages?
• Is the doctrine of equivalents applied to the invention as a whole?
• What acts constitute direct infringement?
• What are the edges of patent exhaustion?
• What are the three Section 112 invalidity grounds?
• What burden does an invalidity defense carry?
• What can the International Trade Commission do that a district court cannot?
• What does apportionment require of a damages theory?
• What does equitable estoppel require?
• What does Section 271(e) do for pharmaceutical litigation?
• What does Section 271(f) reach, and what are its limits?
• What does Section 271(g) do?
• What do local patent rules require early in a case?
• What economic worry drives the apportionment rules?
• What estoppel does an inter partes review carry?
• What families of defenses does an accused infringer have?
• What happens when the accused activity is for the U.S. government?
• What is a demand-letter recipient's six-step playbook?
• What is anticipation, and how strict is the single-reference rule?
• What is a patent infringement case actually about?
• What is assignor estoppel, and how did Minerva narrow it?
• What is contributory infringement, and what is the decisive question?
• What is discretionary denial, and how does it interact with a stay?
• What is divided infringement, and how did Akamai change it?
• What is inequitable conduct, and why is it called patent law's atomic bomb?
• What is literal infringement?
• What is patent exhaustion, and how did Impression Products change it?
• What is patent misuse, and what are its two recurring species?
• What is prosecution history estoppel?
• What is the all-elements rule?
• What is the central tension of writing a demand letter?
• What is the difference between independent and dependent claims?
• What is the hierarchy of evidence in claim construction?
• What is the prior commercial use defense?
• What is the reasonable royalty floor, and how is it computed?
• What kind of claim is a natural Alice target?
• What must a patentee prove for induced infringement?
• What other two fences bound the doctrine of equivalents?
• What pre-suit investigation must a patentee conduct?
• What principle ties direct and indirect infringement together?
• What sequenced plan should an accused startup follow?
• What should an accused company's actual goal be?
• What sources actually decide a disputed claim term?
• What two patentee-controlled doctrines bracket claim construction?
• What validity challenges does the USPTO offer?
• When are attorney's fees available in a patent case?
• When can a patentee recover lost profits?
• When does a party "use" a claimed system?
• Where do patent infringement suits live, and why does venue matter?
• Who decides claim construction, and how is it used at trial?
• Why does a cease-and-desist letter raise the stakes of continuing to ship?
• Why does one appellate court shape patent law nationwide?
• Why does the doctrine of equivalents exist, and what is its test?
• Why does the number of technical differences matter less than their substantiality?
• Why do the claims — not the specification — define infringement?
• Why is a Section 112 attack the natural counterpunch to claim construction?
• Why is claim construction the hinge on which a patent case swings?
• Why is it no defense that an accused infringer never knew the patent existed?
• Why is non-infringement the strongest defense?