A patent is a\nlegal document granted by the Government, which confers an exclusive statutory\nright in favour of the inventor in exchange for disclosure of the invention to\nthe public for general usage. A Patent provides for a monopoly over an\ninvention. According to the Patent\nAct, 1970, the invention should be such that it is new and useful and presents\na new manner of doing something or must be non-obvious in a way that it is an\nimprovement to existing technology. Patent rights are granted for inventive\nproducts and processes which meet the criteria of novelty, non-obviousness, and\nusefulness. Scroll down to check different ways to avoid Patent Infringement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before we\ndiscuss different ways to avoid Patent Infringement, let’s understand the\nmeaning of Patent Infringement. Patent infringement is nowhere defined in the Patent Act,\n1970<\/strong>[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/sup>. However, Section 48 provides exclusive rights to the\npatent-holder to prevent any person not being authorized under the patent or\nhaving a license thereto from \u201cmaking, using, offering for sale, selling or\nimporting\u201d the invention for the same purpose in India. Any infringement of\nthis exclusive right would be considered patent infringement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Patent\ninfringement can be direct as well as indirect. Direct infringement involves\nthe commercial usage or sale of an identical or similar patented item or\nprocess without the consent of the patentee. Indirect infringement involves\nacts by third parties which causes another to infringe a patent or involve\nimporting or procuring parts which are to be specifically used in a patented\nproduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patent infringement\ncan lead to imprisonment or civil liabilities like injunctions, damages and\ncosts, and seizure of infringing material for any loss caused to the\npatent-holder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is always\nprudent to be mindful of existing patents in the market to avoid the risk of incurring\nliability for patent infringement. Due diligence in this regard can help avoid\nthe risk of the product becoming redundant, wasting time, intellectual resources,\nand investment, and paying hefty sums in damages. Hence, the process of\nsearching, determining, and evaluating patents is an important step. Following\nare some different ways to avoid Patent Infringement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nprocess focuses more on the development of new ideas resulting in novel\nproducts, technology, and manner of usage or providing new advantages to users\nand then conducting a search of the existing patents. This is followed majorly\nin industries which do not have many new products or process inventions and\nwhere patent prosecutions and infringements are relatively fewer. Once the idea\nis moulded in a manner that it can be a potentially patentable product or\nprocess, then a patent search is carried out to check the existence of patents\nbased on similar ideas. If the search results in the existence of similar\npatents and the new product\/process infringe the existing one, the latter is\nmodified accordingly. This is a relatively low-cost way to avoid patent\ninfringement as it happens in the early stages of development and hence can be\nused to avoid liabilities or actions without major delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nis one of the important ways to avoid Patent Infringement. This technique is\nused in situations where a new product has already been developed using new\ntechnology or process and the same has received a lot of traction in the\nmarket. The inventor plans to create a product using the same technology but in\na manner that the new feature would be protected by a patent. The inventor then\nidentifies the existing patents which protect the interesting product, and the\nclaims are assessed in depth to understand the ambit of what is covered under\nthe patent. This is followed by process of elimination, where an alternative product\nproducing the same effect can be created in a manner that does not cause\ninfringement. Then a search is conducted again to ensure that the new product\ndoes not infringe on any existing patent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nis also one of the important ways to avoid Patent Infringement. This technique\nis used in spheres where there is no dearth of existing technologies and rival\npatents, which can potentially cause the rejection of a patent for the new\nproduct or process in mind. An extensive patent search covering a few major\nareas in which the function of the existing patent is conducted, and a\ncomprehensive understanding of the rival patents and their ambit of function is\narrived at. Simultaneously, several ideas for a possible product or process are\ncreated and they are compared against the patents identified in the patent\nsearch. The ideas and the identified patents are used as parameters to zero in\non the final idea to be selected. The new design created can be cross-checked\nagainst the identified patents and the existing patents as a whole to rule out\npossibilities of infringement. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWays to Avoid Patent Infringement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n