Subscribe to the IP Headline RSS feed | Subscribe to the IP Headline feed via EmailBNA INSIGHTS: Courts Grapple with Standard for Infringing Use of System Claims in Patent Cases
August 20, 2010 in Patent Trademark & Copyright Journal · Leave a Comment
Three years ago in BMC Resources Inc. v. Paymentech L.P., 498 F.3d 1373, 1379, 84 USPQ2d 1545 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (74 PTCJ 644, 9/28/07), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit first clarified the legal standard for infringing use of method claims where each of the steps is not performed by a single entity. Since then, the issue of so-called “divided infringement” has been front and center in many patent cases, as litigants have tested the boundaries of the doctrine, primarily in cases involving business method, internet, and communications-related patents.
Two related developments have flowed from this case law. First, several courts have extended the concept of divided infringement to apparatus or system claims, an issue not yet squarely addressed by the Federal Circuit.
