Have a patent and want to sue someone?
Or, accused of violating someone else’s patent?
Then talk to a lawyer like me.
I’m an experienced with litigating and counseling clients about pursuing their intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
Patent infringement
Whether a product is covered in the claims that is owned by someone else.
Oftentimes, this turns into fights about the invalidity of patent. Yes, a court can invalidate a patent and this happens all the time.
It is standard that when a patent owner sues someone for patent infringement, the defendant responds by attacking the validity of the patent. So, having their patent “shot down in court” is a risk that every patent owner takes by bringing a patent lawsuit.
How to avoid being sued?
- seek a license from the patent holder
- get a freedom to operate opinion
- design around to avoid infringing the patent claims
Always talk to a patent attorney
Copyright infringement
Unfortunately, it’s very common where people download an image from the internet and republish it.
Well, this could violate someone’s copyright. Even if it’s an innocent copyright infringement, it still is bad news.
If the copyright owner took the time to register the work before it went onto the internet, then you could be facing statutory damages for copyright infringement.
There are several large caveats to copyright infringement
- Work-for-hire doctrine – this is where someone hires an artist, then the copyright is owned by the person who paid for it to be created. But you absolutely must have a written contract.
- Implied licenses – Usually this happens when there was some other relationship between the copyright owner/ infringer that wasn’t necessarily codified in a written contract. In a nutshell, the accused infringer had permission by the copyright owner.
Usually, these overlap with a breach of contract lawsuit.
These can be very fact specific. Do either sound like your situation? Talk to an attorney.
Theft of trade secrets
I cannot believe how often it happens where someone took someone else’s trade secret. It happens for a number of reasons:
- Not having the right contracts in place – employment or business partnerships
- People might innocently not know that they did so
- Outright fraud
If stings when someone else takes your ideas and runs off with them. That was your work.
There is oftentimes a heavy overlap with theft of trade secrets with other actions – breach of contract, unjust enrichment, or even a claim to the ownership of the patent.
If someone took your idea and got a patent for himself/herself, and you have the documentation to prove that it actually happened – you’re not out of luck.
You can sue and maybe get your name listed on the patent. It’s not easy – you must prove that it happened.
But if you think that it happened, you know what to do (all together now) – talk to an attorney!