INTRODUCTION ON PATENT INFRINGEMENT :
Patent infringement means the violation of the exclusive rights of the patent holder. As discussed earlier, patent rights are the exclusive rights granted by the Government to an inventor over his invention for a limited period of time. In other words, if any person exercises the exclusive rights of the patent holder without the patent owner’s authorization then that person is liable for patent infringement. Sections 104-114 of the Patents Act, 1970 provide guidelines relating to patent infringement.
Unlike the Design law, the Patents law does not specify as to what would constitute infringement of a patented product or process. However, the following acts when committed without the consent of the patentee shall amount to infringement:
(i) making, using, offering for sale, selling, importing the patented product;
(ii) using the patented process, or using, offering for sale, selling or importing the product directly obtained by that process
There are three basic types of patent infringements:
(a) Direct Infringement
Direct patent infringement is the most obvious and the most common form of patent infringement. Basically, direct patent infringement occurs when a product that is substantially close to a patented product or invention is marketed, sold, or used commercially without permission from the owner of the patented product or invention.
(b) Indirect Infringement and contributory infringement
Indirect patent infringement suggests that there was some amount of deceit or accidental patent infringement in the incident. For instance, A holds a patent for a device and B manufactures a device which is substantially similar to the A’s device. B is supplied with a product from another person C to facilitate manufacturing of the B’s device. If the device so manufactured by B infringes upon A’s patent, then the person C indirectly infringes A’s patent. Further, if such a product is knowingly sold or supplied, it may lead to “contributory infringement”. In the above example, if the person C knowingly supplies the product to B then the infringement is construed as contributory infringement.