Law Commons^™

No 'Direction' Home: An Alternative Approach To Joint Infringement, W. Keith Robinson

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

U.S. start-ups continue to create new technologies that provide a high degree of connectivity between consumer devices such as mobile phones. In order to protect their innovations, many companies acquire patents that contain method claims covering interactive technology. To successfully enforce a patent when more than one party performs all of the steps of a claimed method, the Federal Circuit has held under its joint infringement doctrine that the patentee must show that one of the alleged infringers “directed or controlled” the actions of the other party. Perceptive parties that form a relationship that does not rise to the level …