Patent Enforcement Is the Remedy for Patent Infringement
The purpose behind a patent is to protect an invention from being copied by a third party that has not either purchased or licensed the patent that covers that invention. And when a patent is infringed – for more information on patent infringement, visit the Patent Infringement page at our website – the remedy is patent enforcement. And patent enforcement comes in the form of filing a patent infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
Should you be able to prove infringement of your patent, you are entitled under federal law to “reasonable royalties” – what the infringer would have paid you in royalties had the infringer licensed your patent in the first place. If you are a business, and you sell products based on the infringed patent, you are entitled to the lost profits from the products sold by the infringer that would have been your sales. And, if you can prove that the infringement was willful – the infringer knew about your patent and infringed it anyway – you are entitled to triple damages!
While patent litigation can generate substantial revenue for the infringed party, it is very expensive. When a major corporation sues another major corporation for patent infringement – as Apple did when it sued Samsung for patent infringement in 2012 – it is a level playing field. Most sides can retain the expensive legal representation and let the judge and jury sort out the law and the facts.
But when an inventor or a small business has a patent that has been infringed, it is most definitely NOT a fair fight. It can cost from $200,000 or $300,000 or more to file and try a patent infringement lawsuit in the federal court system.
There is a solution, however, for the patent owner who cannot afford to finance the cost of patent litigation. While IPOfferings is a patent brokerage firm – our primary business is monetizing through a sale, license or other means the patents and other IP we represent on behalf of a client – IPOfferings has relationships with Patent Assertion Firms. These are companies that specialize in the enforcement of patents for inventors, small businesses and other patent owners who cannot afford the cost of litigation.
A Patent Assertion Firm both manages and finances a comprehensive patent enforcement campaign on behalf of the patent owner. It manages the campaign – engages an attorney and addresses such issues as hiring consultants and experts to research the infringement claim – and finances the campaign – covers not just legal fees but also funds such items as depositions, filing fees, travel expenses, and demonstratives.
Best of all, the Patent Assertion Firm works on a contingency basis. If they fail to secure a settlement or other award for the patent owner, the firm writes off its investment in the case and the client owes nothing. When the Patent Assertion Firm is successful, it shares with the patent owner the settlement, court award or other revenue generated by the assertion campaign.
Understand, however, that patent assertion is a High Risk/High Reward undertaking. You could reach a settlement with the infringer and walk away with a substantial amount that could run into the hundreds of thousands – even millions – of dollars. But there are risks. You could be forced to go to trial and lose. No settlement means no cash for you. In the course of the litigation, you patent runs the risk of being invalidated, so no settlement and no patent. Even though you might have a righteous claim of infringement, it might be smarter to simply take the Low Risk/Low Reward option and sell the patent. We can counsel you as to which is in your best interests, but the final decision is yours.
The patent owner will need to invest in Claim Charts that document infringement of his or her or its patent. But once a Patent Assertion Firm agrees to represent you in the enforcement of your infringed patent(s), it covers all costs going forward. To better understand what is involved in asserting an infringed patent, we recommend you read our “Remedies-at-Law for Patent Infringement” series.
If you believe you have a patent that has been infringed, contact IPOfferings at [email protected] or 845-337-6911.
Click to download our Patent Enforcement Services data sheet.
