patent misuse doctrine
patent-misuse doctrine. An equitable rule that a patentee should not be allowed to use a patent to effectively broaden the scope of the patentee’s monopoly in restraint of trade or otherwise against the public interest. • Two common examples of anticompetitive broadening are (1) using a patent to restrain competition from an unpatented product or process, and (2) employing the patent beyond its life span to exclude others from gaining commercial advantages by using the product or process. The practical effect of finding patent misuse is the loss of patent protection. The doctrine operates independently of antitrust law but overlaps it in many ways and arose in the same era, at the turn of the 20th century. It has been described as an application of the equitable rule of “unclean hands.” See nonmetered license under LICENSE. [Cases: Monopolies 17.5(14); Patents 283(1).C.J.S. Monopolies § 135; Patents §§ 436–439.]
