market-share theory. Antitrust. 1. A method of determining damages for lost profits by calculating the impact of the defendant’s violation on the plaintiff’s output or market share. Cf. BEFORE-AND-AFTER THEORY; YARDSTICK THEORY . [Cases: Monopolies 12(1.3). C.J.S. Monopolies §§ 28–37, 52, 64–66.] 2. Patents. A theory of lost-profits remedy offered when the patentee and the […]
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A land patent substituting for an earlier patent to the same land that lapsed because the previous patentee did not claim it.
minimum-royalty clause. Patents. A royalty-agreement provision that prescribes a fixed payment by the licensee to the patentee, regardless of whether the invention is actually used. [Cases: Patents 218(1), (5).C.J.S. Patents §§ 365–368, 371.]
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An implied license based on the patentee’s course of conduct, including language, from which another person could properly infer that the patentee consented to the other’s use of the patent. See implied license by equitable estoppel; implied license by legal estoppel.
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Blonder–Tongue doctrine. Patents. The rule that a patentee is barred by collateral estoppel from relitigating the validity of a patent that has been held invalid in an earlier proceeding in which the patentee had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the patent’s validity. • The rule was adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court in
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literae patentes (lit-[schwa]r-ee p[schwa]-ten-teez), n. [Latin “open letters”] Hist. A public grant from the sovereign to a subject, conferring the right to land, a franchise, a title, liberty, or some other endowment. • The modern “patent” and, more closely, “letters patent” derive from this term. See LETTERS PATENT(1). “The term ‘patent’ is short for ‘letters
Patents. A judicially created theory for finding patent infringement when the accused process or product falls outside the literal scope of the patent claims. • The doctrine evolved to prevent parties from evading liability for patent infringement by making trivial changes to avoid the literal language of the patent claims. Graver Tank & Mfg. Co.
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request for reexamination. Patents. A formal process of asking the Patent and Trademark Office to review an in-force patent’s validity in light of prior-art references. • Anyone, including the patentee or an infringer, may request a patent’s reexamination. [Cases: Patents 140. C.J.S. Patents § 251.]
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Walker Process claim. Patents. A counterclaim in an infringement suit, seeking a declaratory judgment that the patent is invalid because its owner defrauded the Patent Office. • The claim is based on antitrust law, alleging that the patentee wrongfully tried to monopolize a market. Walker Process Equip., Inc. v. Food Mach. & Chem., 382 U.S.
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patent-exhaustion doctrine. Patents. The rule that the unconditioned sale of a patented article ends the patentee’s monopoly right to control its use. • That control may still be exercised by limitations in a contract or license, as long as it does not amount to anticompetitive patent misuse. Adams v. Burke, 84 U.S. (17 Wall.) 453
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