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FINDING PATENT INFRINGEMENTS
WHO IS INFRINGING MY PATENT?
ANALYTIC SEARCH FOR INFRINGEMENTS
A patent is the final appreciation of an inventors intellectual achievement, on the other hand it offers to the owner a legal monople that is limited to a certain period of time. Thus, in addition to the intellectual achievement, the considerable costs that have led to a patent are taken into account.
Accordingly, the prosecution of a declared patent infringement is not only the right, but also the duty of the legal representative, if the owner is a legal person. This derives, on the one hand, from moral obligations towards stakeholders and inventors and one legal obligation to avert direct or indirect damage from the company (e.g. §43 GmbHG, § 93 AktG).
The challenge here is to discover and prove an infringement and to initiate the subsequent legal action and to challenge it legally if necessary.
THERE IS MORE TO WIN THAN TO LOOSE
In addition to the question of who is the infringer, also economic aspects play an important role: the costs can quickly explode in the event of a lawsuit, depending on the country the infringer is located. Often, this is the reason why patent infringements are not pursued any further, although litigation can often be compensated with a simple license offer or may be covered with an insurance.
We assist you with appropriate and proven instruments to master the challenges that arise here.
CHALLENGES
How to discover a patent infringement?
What do I do against the infringer, especially when he's abroad?
Law firms specializing in patent infringement exist in every country. If your patent attorney / your patent department has no contacts here, we are happy to help with research and placement.
The litigation is expensive, especially if it is a foreign company, is it worth the effort?
APPROACH
Claims chart analysis with systematic analysis of (independent) claims and translation into (technical) searchable characteristics and functions, research for products and manufacturers that claim the corresponding features in brochures, publications, product descriptions for their products.
Law firms specializing in patent infringement exist in every country. If your patent attorney / your patent department has no contacts here, we are happy to help with research and placement.
For legal disputes arising from an infringement, there are specialized insurances. Similar to a legal protection insurance, the insurance will cover the costs of the legal dispute, should it come to litigation. Initially, you have to determine what you want to achieve with a prosecution: omission, damages or a license agreement. Especially in the case of the latter companies are often cooperative, as long as the license requirements are fair. Again, we are happy to assist in the search and mediation
PROCEDURE
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Preliminary examination: In a brief preliminary examination, we analyze the (granted) patent and its claims in order to assess the acquisition and the chances of success. Here it is important to figure out if an infringement is detectable by our method here in general, without e.g. to undertake a detailed investigation on a competitor product.
Result: Statement as to whether the patent can be used for a corresponding analysis
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Claim Chart Analysis of (independent) claims in the patent: the claim(s) are broken down into features, which are translated into suitable, searchable features and functions.
Result: List of product features
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Research: In a detailed search published product descriptions, specifications and representations are analyzed and examined with regard to the characteristics of the claims. Of course, it can not always be precisely clarified whether an infringement actually exists, so a probability of infringement is given. A final assessment must be made by your patent attorney.
Result: Different products whose description indicates an infringement
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Compilation and reporting: All results are compiled in a structured, comprehensible report that clearly identifies which company violates which claim with which product and with what probability.
Result: The document should allow an authorized patent attorney to make his own assessment and to formulate a corresponding letter of punishment (for example, with a view to a license agreement).
BUSINESS MODELS
Basically we work on a fixed price basis, i.e. after a preliminary check, we will give you a binding, reasonnable fixed-price offer, which is derived from the number of independent claims and the expected effort on our side.
Of course, not every patent is infringed and not always an infringement is also detectable with our approach.
In order to minimize the customer-side risk, we also offer performance-based business models, in which we e.g. share the royalties resulting from an infringement. In such a case, our customers actually only have to win and nothing to lose.
NULLITY ANALYSES
An earlier state of the art can also be found using the same procedure. In these "Prior Art" analyses it is necessary to find a document published before the priority date which already discloses the inventive ideas on which the invention is based. In connection with claims for damages, which are often associated with significant costs, and injunctions, which could lead to considerable turnover problems, a "Prior Art" search is often a last resort to avoid this: often it is already sufficient to confront the plaintiff with the results of the Prior Art analysis so that he refrains from his claim, otherwise only the nullity action remains. Good Prior Art analyses are a prerequisite for this. In the nullity analysis (as opposed to a pure nullity search), the individual claim elements are consistently broken down and searched for corresponding earlier descriptions including the sources. Not only patent literature, but especially non-patent literature is used herefor.
The procedure is comparable to the infringement search procedure, but the search is carried out with a different source period.