UK Supreme Court Redefines Patent Infringement
Aug 11th, 2017 by David Puleo | News | Recent News & Articles |
Although the focus of most of our pieces has been on U.S. patent law, there is occasion to report on developments of note from abroad. One such patent case decided last month in Great Britain deserves our attention. On July 12th, the United Kingdom Supreme Court (UKSC) redefined patent infringement laws as related to infringement by equivalents, i.e. under what we know here in the U.S. as the “Doctrine of Equivalents”. To elaborate, under this doctrine, a party can be found liable for patent infringement even though the accused item or process does not fall within the literal scope of a patent claim. The current legal test in the U.S. determines whether the difference between the accused item or process and the patent claim is “insubstantial” so that it is equivalent to an invention falling within the scope of the claim. See Warner-Jenkinson Co. v. Hilton Davis Chem. Co. (1997). Although well established in the U.S., the doctrine has been anathema under U.K. law.