What is contributory infringement?
Within the context of patent law, contributory infringement is a
type of indirect infringement. Specifically, contributory infringement occurs
where someone assists another in their efforts to infringe a patent by selling,
offering to sell or importing one or more components which can be used to make
the invention which is protected by a patent. However, the parts sold must
have no other substantial use except for being used in the patented invention -
if they do have other substantial uses, there is no contributory infringement. For
example, suppose you have a patent for a pencil with an eraser, and I start
selling eraser nubs. If you can show that those eraser nubs serve no purpose
except for being put on the top of a pencil, I am a contributory infringer.
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Posted in: FAQ-PATENTS
