# Doctrine of equivalents

A legal doctrine that extends patent protection beyond the literal scope of the claims. Even if a competitor's product doesn't literally include every element of a claim, infringement may still exist if each claim element is performed by a substantially similar function in a substantially similar way. Courts apply this doctrine to prevent competitors from making trivial changes to avoid literal infringement.

**Full entry:** https://patentbrief.org/glossary/doctrine-of-equivalents

**All patent terms:** https://patentbrief.org/glossary

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_Source: PatentBrief — https://patentbrief.org. A plain-English glossary of US patent terms._