Patents are granted for inventions. A patent provides a legal monopoly that can be used by its owner (the patentee) to prevent others from using the patented invention. Patents can be very strong intellectual property rights that may be used to preserve exclusivity in the marketplace for up to twenty years. This often allows companies to charge a premium for patented goods or services whilst their patent is in force.

Operating within a patented monopoly may be an act of patent infringement. If the patent owner decides to sue, the main remedies that are available in the UK are an injunction and monetary compensation (damages). In the UK, patent infringement cases are split into two parts. First, the Judge will determine whether the defendant has carried out acts (infringing acts) within the scope of the patented monopoly. If the defendant is found to infringe, the Judge will usually award an injunction. In the second part of the procedure, the Judge will determine how much compensation the defendant should pay.

In a patent infringement case, the Judge will focus on the meaning of the claims contained at the end of the patent specification, since these determine the scope of the legal monopoly. The Judge carries out this exercise of claim construction with the aid of technical information contained in the patent, often with the assistance of experts.

One of the standard defences for a company that has been sued for patent infringement is to say that the patent is invalid and should not have been granted. This involves proving that the invention is not new, or that it lacks an inventive step, in the sense that it was obvious to a person of appropriate skill in the relevant technical field. For further information on the legal grounds for challenging the validity of a patent, click here

The number of court cases about the ownership of patents and inventors’ rights has increased in recent years. Questions of sole, joint or shared ownership of inventions are arising more frequently than they did in the past as a result of companies seeking to outsource their research and development activities. Complicated legal issues can arise in relation to the joint ownership of inventions and entitlement to patents when companies collaborate in making an invention. This is an increasingly important area of the law for companies undertaking joint research and development projects.