Real Clear Policy: Restore Injunctive Relief to Keep American Innovation Alive by James Edwards
What if you won in court, but the judge ruled that you couldn’t stop the thief from continuing to use your ATM card he stole? You had to share your ATM card’s usage with the law breaker.
Patents are supposed to secure exclusive rights to one’s intellectual property. Exclusivity is crucial to preserving the incentives that drive innovation. For two centuries, innovation, powered by robust patent protection, led to America’s global innovation leadership. This U.S. leadership is faltering because of judges’ rulings that allow infringers to continue to benefit commercially from purloined inventions, a new study confirms.
In the past, patent owners could take instances of infringement to court, where they stood a good chance of being granted an injunction, permanently excluding the infringer from using the patented technology in the market.