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wledgment
constitutes prima facie evidence of the execution of the
assignment, grant, or conveyance.
Recording of Assignments
The Office records assignments, grants, and similar
instruments sent to it for recording, and the recording serves
as notice. If an assignment, grant, or conveyance of a patent
or an interest in a patent (or an application for patent) is
not recorded in the Office within three months from its date,
it is void against a subsequent purchaser for a valuable
consideration without notice, unless it is recorded prior to
the subsequent purchase.
An instrument relating to a patent should identify the
patent by number and date (the name of the inventor and title
of the invention as stated in the patent should also be given).
An instrument relating to an application should identify the
application by its serial number and date of filing, and the
name of the inventor and title of the invention as stated in
the application should also be given. Sometimes an assignment
of an application is executed at the same time that the
application is prepared and before it has been filed in the
Office. Such assignment should adequately identify the
application, as by its date of execution and name of the
inventor and title of the invention, so that there can be no
mistake as to the application intended.
If an application has been assigned and the assignment is
recorded, on or before the date the issue fee is paid, the
patent will be issued to the assignee as owner. If the
assignment is of a part interest only, the patent will be
issued to the inventor and assignee as joint owners.
Joint Ownership
Patents may be owned jointly by two or more persons as in
the case of a patent granted to joint inventors, or in the case
of the assignment of a part interest in a patent. Any joint
owner of a patent, no matter how small the part interest, may
make, use, and sell the invention for his or her own profit,
without regard to the other owner, and may sell the interest or
any part of it, or grant licenses to others, without regard to
the other joint owner, unless the joint owners have made a
contract governing their relation to each other. It is
accordingly dangerous to assign a part interest without a
definite agreement between the parties as to the extent of
their respective rights and their obligations to each other if
the above result is to be avoided.
The owner of a patent may grant licenses to others. Since
the patentee has the right to exclude others from making, using
or selling the invention, no one else may do any of these
things without his permission. A license is the permission
granted by the patent owner to another to make, use, or sell
the invention. No particular form of license is required; a
license is a contract and may include whatever provisions the
parties agree upon, including the payment of royalties, etc.
The drawing up of a license agreement (as well as
assignments) is within the field of an attorney at law,
although such attorney should be familiar with patent matters
as well. A few States have prescribed certain formalities to be
observed in connection with the sale of patent rights.
INFRINGEMENT OF PATENTS
Infringement of a patent consists in the unauthorized
making, using, or selling of the patented invention within the
territory of the United States, during the term of the patent.
If a patent is infringed, the patentee may sue for relief in
the appropriate Federal court. The patentee may ask the court
for an injunction to prevent the continuation of the
infringement and may also ask the court for an award of damages
because of the infringement. In such an infringement suit, the
defendant may raise the question of the validity of the patent,
which is then decided by the court. The defendant may also aver
that what is being done does not constitute infringement.
Infringement is determined primarily by the language of the
claims of the patent and, if what the defendant is making does
not fall within the language of any of the claims of the
patent, there is no infringement.
Suits for infringement of patents follow the rules of
procedure of the Federal courts. From the decision of the
district court, there is an appeal to the Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit. The Supreme Court may thereafter take a
case by writ of certiorari. If the United States Government
infringes a patent, the patentee has a remedy for damages in
the United States Claims Court. The Government may use any
patented invention without permission of the patentee, but the
patentee is entitled to obtain compensation for the use by or
for the Government.
If the patentee notifies anyone that is infringing the
patent or threatens suit, the one charged with infringement may
start the suit in a Federal court.
The Office has no jurisdiction over questions rela
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