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What are the consequences of infringement?

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What are the consequences of infringement? Video Transcript

If a court finds somebody has infringed upon your patent, the infringer may be required to pay a reasonable royalty for their use of your invention.  In addition, the infringer may also have to pay past damages for the infringement of whatever they sold in the marketplace based on that reasonable royalty that has been set by the jury. 

It might be that the patent holder might enjoin the infringer – meaning that they prevent you from using and further selling any products, which is not always a happy scenario, but it is a possible solution.  However, that is not usually the path chosen because most people want to see their ideas succeed in the marketplace and preventing the infringer completely would not accomplish that.  Often win-win solutions can be created.  However, there are circumstances in which an inventor would not want to allow an infringer to continue to sell anything at all related to their invention and the inventor can do this.  If the court finds the infringement to be willful – meaning the infringements are repeatedly occurring despite the infringer knowing they are in violation, then the patent damages could be tripled.  In legalese, this is known as treble damages and can be pretty severe.  The penalties for patent infringement are civil penalties, so nobody is going to jail.  The penalties are reduced to dollar amounts. 

 

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© PatentExpress.com All rights reserved. Disclaimer: The information provided in this site is not legal advice, but general information on legal issues commonly encountered. Please note that your access to and use of PatentExpress.com is subject to additional terms and conditions. 05-23-2012