Patent misuse is an anti-trust violation of the law. If a patent owner improperly uses the patent beyond its lawful scope, the patent is consider to be improperly used or misused. The patent owner will generally be unable to recover damages for infringement during the period of time that the patent has been misused. Examples of patent misuse include illegal tying of products and services to the patented invention, price fixing and the like.

Patent Infringement