Over 50 years ago, the Supreme Court reaffirmed a traditional rule, then a hundred years old, “that to permit imitation of a patented invention which does not copy every literal detail would be to convert the protection of a patent grant into a hollow and useless thing.” Graver Tank & Mfg. Co. v. Linde Air Prods. Co., 339 U.S. 605, 607 (1950). That protection against “imitation” is the doctrine of equivalents, which permits an infringement claim against a defendant who has not literally infringed a patent, if the differences between the infringing device and the patent claims are only “insubstantial.”
Doctrine of Equivalents
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