Patent Claims To Avoid Infringement

Is this a true statement

In order to avoid me infringing on another companies registered patent I have to avoid meeting the requirements of ALL the claims of a particular patent.

For example, if the patent I want to avoid infringing upon has 5 claims, as long as only 4 of them apply to what I am doing I am in the clear?

Hi Vulcanrd
Your statement is partially right. Each claim has a number of elements, and a claim is infringed if ALL elements of a claim are present in the accused device. Hence, if claim 1 requires A, B, C, D and E, then the accused device must have A, B, C, D and E present to infringe claim 1. So if you mean that you have only 4 elements, then you are in the clear as to claim 1.

If you infringe one claim, then you infringe the patent and thus if the patent you want to avoid has 5 claims and you infringe 4 of them, then you still have infringement. I think you mean if one claim has 5 ELEMENTS and your device has only 4 ELEMENTS, then you don't infringe that claim, but you need to review all claims to be sure you don't infringe the remaining claims.

Hope that help.
Bao Tran, Esq
Tran & Associates
www.tranassoc.com

Incorrect. When you say "In order to avoid me infringing on another companies registered patent I have to avoid meeting the requirements of ALL the claims of a particular patent.", that is a false statement. Your infringing product needs to have all the elements of any one of the claims of a particular patent. So, if a patent has 20 claims, and your product infringes just one of claims, then you still infringe.

Mike Blake
Patent Attorney
203-876-5081