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Standing to Assert a U.S. Patent: Do Infringement Actions Belong Solely to the 'Patentee'?

By Jeffrey D. Sullivan

Who can sue on a U.S. patent? The answer is not always as clear-cut as one may think. A patent plaintiff or other party seeking to enforce rights in a U.S. patent portfolio will thus wish to ensure before commencing any such action that he enjoys sufficient legal standing with respect to the patents in his portfolio. Otherwise, a challenge to the plaintiff's legal standing may lead to unexpected chagrin for the would-be asserter of the patent and unlooked-for advantage on the part of the alleged infringer against whom the patent was to be asserted.

35 U.S.C. ' 281 provides that “a patentee shall have remedy by civil action for infringement of his patent.” (emphasis added) This section of the Patent Code provides the statutory basis for standing to sue in a patent case. It may be a source of some surprise, then, to consider how often in practice substantial questions arise regarding the putative patent plaintiff's threshold right to assert the patent at all, or how important it is (for both plaintiff and defendant) to determine at the outset of a possible patent infringement proceeding whether the plaintiff actually has adequate ownership interests in the patent he is purporting to assert.

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