5 Reasons You Should No Longer Bother Getting U.S. Patents

1. No Longer Any Guarantee Of Exclusive Patent Protection

According to the US Supreme Court in the recent Ebay case, there is no longer any assurance that rightful owners of valid US patents have any legal right to prevent unlawful trespassers from infringing his or her patent.  In particular, the Ebay case specifically held that mere patent owners (e.g. non-practicing inventors or university researchers) cannot automatically assume they have any legal power to litigate against proven infringers to seek injunctive relief to block unlawful trespass.

2. No Current Assurance Of Reliable Patent Licensing

Again recently according to the US Supreme Court in the Medimmune case, a patent owner who licenses his or her patent via a legally-binding patent license agreement can no longer prevent the licensor of his or her valid patent license agreement from then suing the patent owner to challenge the validity of the patent, while still getting the benefit of licensing patent rights under the patent.

3. Cannot Seek Patent Protection For Mere Combination Of Old Elements

And more recently according to the US Supreme Court in the KSR case, despite many years of legal practice well-settled to the contrary by the US Patent Office and the Federal Courts, one can no longer expect to obtain a US patent for an invention that is “merely a combination of old elements” even if the Patent Office cannot show after substantive examination of the patent application that there is no teaching, suggestion or motivation in the prior art to make such inventive combination of elements.

4. No Increased Damages Sanctionable Against Willful Infringers

In the recent Seagate case, infringers who receive prior written notice to warn them against their continued willful trespass of one’s patent rights are no longer held liable for paying multiple damages, unless there is clear and convincing evidence that the infringer was “objective recklessness.”

5. And It Is Getting Even Worse For Patent Proponents...

The US Patent Office is seeking now to limit dramatically the ability of patent applicants to continue to prosecute related patent applications via continuation application practice, and to limit substantially the number of patent claims that patent applicants could rightfully include previously in patent applications altogether.  Furthermore, Congress is working hard at this time to reform the US patent laws to reduce significantly the reasonable royalties that a patent owner may recover as minimum remedies from guilty trespassers.