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The Federal Government Can Be Held Liable for Patent Infringement If you have ever asked yourself, “can the U.S. government be held liable in a civil action for patent infringement?” Here is the answer – Yes. This is because the federal government has effectively waived sovereign immunity when it comes to civil claims alleging patent infringement. As a result, the federal government can be the named defendant in a civil action alleging patent infringement, in certain circumstances. Legal Basis to File a Civil Action against the Government The legal basis to file a civil lawsuit against the U.S. government for…

Filing an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) When filing a patent application, you have a legal obligation to disclose all information known to you that is material to the “patentability” of your device, product, idea, etc. These disclosures must be formally conveyed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in accordance with 35 C.F.R. §1.56. You may be asking, “what exactly constitutes material information for my patent application?” Well, the governing standard is that any information that a reasonable patent application examiner would consider important in assessing whether to grant the application is deemed to be material. It is also…

Different Types of Patent Searches When an individual or business is looking to apply for a patent, they are usually surprised to discover the array of options that need to be analyzed in order to conduct a proper patent search. The reason there are multiple patent search options is because the scope of the search will be determined by the overarching reason for the search. Generally, there are four types of patent searches that can be conducted: Novelty (patentability) search Freedom to Operate (FTO) search Non-infringement search; and Validity search Let’s take a look at each… Novelty Search The most…