Literal infringement

Cross-referenced

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.

Cross-referenced

Claim

The numbered sentences at the end of a patent that define exactly what is legally protected. Claims are the only part of a patent that determine infringement — if a product or process doesn't fall within the scope of at least one claim, there is no infringement. Every other part of a patent (abstract, drawings, specification) exists to support and illuminate the claims.

Cross-referenced

Infringement

The unauthorized making, using, selling, or importing of a product or process that falls within the scope of a valid patent's claims. Infringement is determined by comparing each element of a patent claim to the accused product or process. If every element is present — literally or under the doctrine of equivalents — infringement exists.

License

Permission granted by a patent owner to another party to make, use, sell, or import a patented invention, typically in exchange for payment. Licenses can be exclusive (only one licensee) or non-exclusive (multiple licensees allowed). They can cover specific geographies, time periods, or fields of use. Unlike an assignment, a license does not transfer ownership of the patent.

Abstract

A brief summary (300 words or fewer) that appears at the top of every patent. The abstract describes what the invention does in general terms. Legally, it has almost no weight — courts use the claims to determine what a patent covers, not the abstract. The abstract is useful mainly for quickly scanning patents during a prior art search.

Anticipation

A legal standard for rejecting a patent claim. If every element of a claim was already disclosed in a single prior art reference — in a patent, article, or product — the claim is "anticipated" and cannot be patented. Anticipation requires a single source to contain every element; if you need two sources, it's an obviousness argument, not anticipation.