US Supreme Court Limits Patent Owners’ Control Over Downstream Use Of Their Inventions
By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch
The United States has once again chipped away at patent rights. The country's highest court recently handed down a ruling that makes it harder for patent owners to impose limits on downstream users of their inventions.
The US Supreme Court's decision in Quanta Computer Inc. v. LG Electronics Inc., however, fails to address a major issue facing patent owners and their legal counsel: Can patent owners use conditional sales or licensing agreements to impose restrictions on downstream users?
