William F. Heinze, a patent attorney, wrote in the The CEO Refresher a readable article on the legal doctrine of “equitable estoppel.”
Quoting from the article “An equitable estoppel typically arises in these cases when a patent owner makes a misleading communication that it will not enforce its patent, and an infringer reasonably relies upon that communication to continue or expand its business. The communication itself can take almost any form, including conduct or silence, as long as it supports a reasonable inference that the patent will not be enforced. However, in order to show reliance, the infringer must have been lulled into a false sense of security with regard to continuing or expanding its operations. Consequently, silence alone is generally not enough to create an estoppel, unless the patent owner also has some other duty to disclose its patent position.”
Mr. Heinze’s is a member of the law firm Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley LLC in Atlanta, Georgia.
Hat tip to Empiricum for the link.
Quoting from the article “An equitable estoppel typically arises in these cases when a patent owner makes a misleading communication that it will not enforce its patent, and an infringer reasonably relies upon that communication to continue or expand its business. The communication itself can take almost any form, including conduct or silence, as long as it supports a reasonable inference that the patent will not be enforced. However, in order to show reliance, the infringer must have been lulled into a false sense of security with regard to continuing or expanding its operations. Consequently, silence alone is generally not enough to create an estoppel, unless the patent owner also has some other duty to disclose its patent position.”
Mr. Heinze’s is a member of the law firm Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley LLC in Atlanta, Georgia.
Hat tip to Empiricum for the link.
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1 comment:
IANAL but this sounds more like prosecution laches than collateral estoppel as I understand the terms; my understanding has been that collateral estoppel means once an issue of fact or law has been settled in a suit it cannot be relitigated for a different cause of action in another suit involving one of the parties to the first suit. Laches means you snooze, you lose, i.e. fail to see that your patents are enforced and you forfeit the right.
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