Patents enforcement

Patent documents, 78 158, 203-206 on CD-ROMs, 78 249 for patent families, 78 207 reviewing, 78 160-165 Patentee, 78 160 Patent enforcement, 24 377 Patent examination, in foreign countries, 78 190... 

Fundamentally, a patent provides the right to exclude others from practicing the invention covered by (i.e., "claimed in") the patent. Enforcement of patents is limited both temporally and geographically. A patent can be enforced only against acts occurring during its term (158). Patent term is discussed in detail in Section 2.4 above. 

The printed pubHshed document which represents the patent rights granted by the Federal Government can be a complex Hterary work. There are specific and rigid legal requirements for the description, disclosure, and definiteness which support these affirmative rights and enable enforcement of those rights by the inventor or owner of the patent. The basis for this fiiU and complete disclosure of the invention in the patent is clearly articulated in the U.S. Constitution. 

A reissue may be ordered to correct any minor or major mistake which occurred during prosecution of a patent, but the mistake must be one that makes the patent partially or whoUy inoperable. Inoperable essentially means that the patent caimot be enforced. For instance, a reissue proceeding can be used to correct inventorship or even broaden claims if the patent is less than two years old. However, such a request to broaden claims in the context of reissue may not be undertaken to recover subject matter canceled during examination. Further, a reissue proceeding may be undertaken to correct formal problems or address newly discovered prior art which affects the scope of the claims. The nature of a reissue proceeding directs that this mechanism should be used only when the vaUdity of the patent is in question owing to the error or problem in question. 

Payment of maintenance fees is required at the fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-year anniversaries of the date of issuance of the patent. The costs of these maintenance fees vary from year to year depending on the regulations of the U.S. PTO. The first maintenance fee tends to be fairly slight, allowing for the further enforcement of the patent with Htde economic burden on the patentee. The second maintenance fee tends to increase the payment from the first maintenance fee by a factor of two. The third maintenance fee tends to be substantial, increasing the payment from the first maintenance fee by a factor of three. 

In the past, USA competing companies could not cooperate, such as in R D, without breaching antitrust laws. Patent pooling, such as collecting and cross-licensing patents, was precluded. Today the antitrust laws are reviewed, interpreted, and enforced less stringently, which permits industrial cooperation in selected and specific areas where poling does exist. This explanation is a simplistic summation to a very complicated situation. 

Limits were imposed on the circumstances in which governments can enforce the licensing of patents. 

Foreign genes, transcription and translation of, 12 517 Foreign patent rights, enforcement of, 18 190... 

Box 4-4 deseribes BiovaiTs listing of Patent No. 6,162,463 (the 463 patent), which caused the second 30-month stay for Tiazac, and the FTC s related enforcement aetion. Court decisions related to this listing ean be found at ... 

As already mentioned, a patent gives the patentee a monopoly protection during its life, but it is up to the patentee to enforce his rights by detecting whether someone is infringing the patent, and then initiating legal action if the matter cannot be settled. 

For the successful coinmerciahsation of almost all biocatalysis products, patent protection is essential since without patent protection, and the prospect of a period of enforceable monopoly in which to recoup investment and make a profit, it is unlikely that the substantial investment required for bringing a product process to the market will occur. Frequently, the compare making the invention does not wish to, or is not able to, bring the invention to the market itself. Instead, it enters into an alhance with a partner which is better able to do this. In this case, and especially in the period where it is still uncertain that the product will be useful or commercially successful, patents and patent applications, and the know-how associated with the product or processes, may be the most valuable asset of the company. 

In some cases, the technology may be used to identify new products, but the company itself may not wish to do this. Having potentially enforceable patent protection which may be licensed out or assigned may be the only way in which this type of compare can properly exploit its inventions. 

One proposal for reducing translation costs is to publish a detailed abstract and the claims of the application, in the official language of each designated state so that a full translation would only be required if the patent was to be enforced. This so-called package solution is not as attractive as it seems because the number contracting states is set to increase with the likely addition of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. 

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