Patent infringement is a statutory tort, and acts constituting illegal activities are stipulated in Article 60 of the Patent Act 1977.
The infringement suit can be done by the patent owner or by an exclusive licensee of the patent.
In order to judge the presence or absence of infringement, we need to consider the following.
1. The scope of the invention protected by a patent (or patent application).
2. Whether potential infringer activities related to the present invention fall under section 60 (1) or (2) of PA 1977.
3. Is statutory exemption or other defense available?
There are two types of infringement.
Direct infringement refers to an act that is performed directly with respect to a patented product or process (Section 60 (1), PA 1977). It concerns the following activities in the UK. (I) patented product; (ii) use of the patent acquisition process. (Iii) provision of a patented process for use. (Iv) Products directly obtained by the patent acquisition process
If the patented invention is a product, the person infringes the patent (Section 60 (1) (a), PA 1977). (Ii) Dispose of the product. (Iii) Offer disposal of products. (Iv) Use the product. (V) Import products. Please keep Egyptian (vi) product (for disposal or other purposes).
2. Indirect infringement means an act indirectly related to a patented product or process. Indirectly infringe a patent to which all of the following applies (Section 60 (2), PA 1977):
a. In the UK he supplies or provides to the UK any of the means associated with the essential elements of the patented invention for implementing the invention.
b. That he knows or that means is suitable for making the invention in force in the UK and its intention must be obvious to reasonable people.
c. The person provided or the person provided is not a licensee or any other person who has the right to invent.
Section 60 (5) of PA 1977 shows a number of infringement exceptions based on sections 60 (1) and (2) of PA 1977.
In addition to the exception of infringement it is also possible to defend patent allegation by challenging the validity of patent / patent registration for the following reasons:
1. The present invention does not meet statutory criteria applicable to patent registration.
2. There is prior art and the invention was not new at the time of registration and should not be given first.
Alternatively, you can conduct a technical analysis of patent specifications on patents and keep patent infringement claims subject to customer's products being outside the scope of patent specifications.
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