A patent infringement attorney represents clients who believe that someone has infringed on their patent. Patents protect ideas from intellectual property theft. If someone comes up with an idea or a formula that they believe will be profitable when created, they can patent that idea to protect their intellectual property, and to protect the investment they made in research and development. If another person then takes that same idea that has been patented and begins producing the product according to the patented formula, a patent infringement attorney can bring legal action against that person.
Patents are necessary to protect the investment that people and companies make in research and development. Patents are common in the drug industry and in the electronics or computer industries. Without patents, a company would have no incentive to develop new ideas because as soon as they found something that worked, another company could begin using that formula to create the same product, thus benefiting from the novel idea without making the investment of time and expense to discover the product.
A patent infringement attorney is hired by a company whose patent was infringed, in order to bring a lawsuit against the company that did the infringing. This attorney may seek an injunction, which is a legal court order that mandates that the person infringing on the patent stop doing the illegal infringing actions. A patent infringement attorney can also seek damages, or monetary compensation for the infringement.
When a client believes that their patent has been stolen, they can hire a patent infringement attorney to file a lawsuit against the company. The patent infringement attorney will file the appropriate papers in court. The patent infringement attorney will then help the client build their case by conducting discovery, and otherwise hiring investigators or experts to determine if the patent was infringed upon.
Discovery is the process in which the attorney and the client request the information from the defendant that is necessary to prove that the patent was infringed upon. Discoverable material may include documents relating to the products in question. This material, along with other evidence, is then presented in court so that the judge or jury can determine whether the accused actually infringed upon the plaintiff's patented product or not.
Once liability is determined, the patent infringement attorney will work with the client to recover damages. Usually, the judge or jury decides damages. The infringement attorney will help to demonstrate the amount of actual damages that were incurred by the client as a result of the infringement.
An infringement attorney may also represent a client accused of infringing on someone else's patent. In this case, the attorney's job is to defend the allegation by showing that the company did not infringe upon the product. They can do this by showing differences in the product from the patent, or by showing that the accused company actually had a patent first.
