What Is A Patent Infringement Warning Letter?

After having patented your product, you need to guard it too. And the first weapon you use is the patent infringement warning letter. This is the first piece of written, formal communication between the holder of the patent and the infringer. The letter is sent when the infringement is first detected. It is usually from where a legal battle begins.

The world is full of people who wish to cash in on the hard work of others. Patent infringes are such people. They would copy your design or start using a process researched and developed by you without paying a penny. These people need to be taken to task, and the law provides for it.

However, it requires a warning letter to be shot first. This is to protect the innocent, inadvertent infringers, who might not know about the existent of the patent protection to the product or the process. The law recognizes the possibility of two minds entertaining the same idea and coming up with same or deceptively similar products. In such cases a warning letter serves the purpose.

Now, if there is a question as to who is the proper owner of the patent or if the question arises regarding the patentability of the product, it has to be decided by a competent court or authority.

A patent can be granted only to such a process or product that is clearly distinctive and is not an imitation of an already patented product. A minor betterment on a known product is also not permissible. If there is a betterment of an existing technique it should to an extent that it either completely changes the results or makes it miraculously speedy by addition of something or through a change of process or procedure.

In such cases one gets patent on the process and procedure that alters the result while the rest of the process or procedure remains free from patent protection for this particular person.

It is possible that two procedures are combined to make the entire process speedier with the patent to one procedure with one and that of the other with another person. Both of them remain the holders of patent in equal measure and in order to use this entire process one has to obtain the permission from both or a joint permission.

If the permission is granted by one and not by other, the half procedure can be used while the effect of the other half has to be obtained by any procedure other than the one patented by the second person. And the procedure used must also be distinct from the patented procedure because otherwise it would amount to an infringement of patent protection.

And if you infringe the patent you would be running the risk of getting receiving a patent infringement warning letter with a suit filed for infringement thereafter. Patent infringement is a serious matter and must not be taken lightly, as the courts are quite strict and prompt.