介绍:
You can use your ownership of the patent to obtain value in any of seven ways:
1. Sell the patent outright.
2. License others to make, use, and/or sell the patented invention in return for royalties under a variety of conditions, subject to the antitrust laws mentioned in the note below.
3. Create a monopoly by preventing anyone else from making, using, or selling the invention. In this case you would manufacture the invention yourself (or have it manufactured for you) and charge more than could have in a competitive
situation. Xerox did this in the early days of photocopiers. In other words, a patent will give you the right (within limits) to fix the price of your product—a capitalist’s dream!
4. If accused of patent infringement by the owner of another patent, you may be able to assert your patent against the other patent holder and generate a crosslicensing arrangement to avoid paying royalties or having to stop infringing.
5. You can tout your patent in advertising.
6. The patent is a publication (as of its filing date or the filing date of any PPA or foreign patent application from which the patent claims priority) that will prevent others from patenting the same thing.
7. While a patent does not give you any immunity from infringing others’ patents, if you are manufacturing anything and another patent holder charges you with infringement, you can sometimes use the patent to (a) show that your products are separately patentable and thus are not direct copies, and (b) prevent the infringer from using the doctrine of equivalents.
