Akin Gump Lawyers Author Law360 Article Providing Guidance on Allegations of Indirect Infringement in Patent Cases

Law360 has published “Overlooked Patent Cases: Indirect Infringement Developments,” an article by Akin Gump intellectual property partner Brandon Rash and associate Sohrab Hajarian that explores the different approaches taken by federal district courts in cases involving allegations of indirect patent infringement.

Rash and Hajarian write that some courts “have held that a plaintiff must plead that the defendant had presuit knowledge of the asserted patents, while others have held that notice of the complaint satisfies the knowledge requirement.” They provide guidance regarding allegations of indirect patent infringement as well as on increasing the likelihood of surviving a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. The authors also offer some alternative courses of action for patentees “wishing to bring a claim of indirect infringement in a jurisdiction that may not allow for pleading knowledge of the asserted patent based on the complaint, but lacking such evidence.”

The article concludes with the observation that patentees “should be cognizant of the available alternatives to satisfying the knowledge requirement, including the risks and requirements of those alternatives.”

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.