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You might be confusing infringement with patentability. If an independent claim isn't infringed, then by extension none of the dependent claims are infringed a
by brigade 4y ago
You might be confusing infringement with patentability.
If an independent claim isn't infringed, then by extension none of the dependent claims are infringed and they don't have to be considered. So the easiest route to defending a patent lawsuit can be proving the independent claims don't apply.
- AlbertCory 4y agoThere are two main defenses: invalidity and non-infringement. You're correct, and you're talking about non-infringement. Invalidity can be proven outside of a full-blown lawsuit (via re-exam) and so it's cheaper. Asking a jury to judge invalidity is asking for trouble, because they usually figure they're not competent to do it. I actually watched a video of a mock jury, where they debated this. It's pretty shocking how little they understand the law. One juror actually said, "well, that prior art reference -- it's not fair to expect the PTO to have heard of that."