Have you ever noticed patent numbers on a product that you purchased? Those patent numbers show up everywhere: on the back of an appliance, on the bottom of a candy dispenser—even on the cardboard insulator for a hot coffee cup. Placing a patent number on a patented product is called “patent marking” and it is strictly voluntary, but doing so can afford the patent holder with significant rights.
Simply put, if a patented product is sold without patent marking, damages for patent infringement are unavailable until the infringer has been given actual notice of the infringement. Actual notice occurs when a party that is infringing a patent gains knowledge of that infringement. This may be accomplished, for example, by sending the infringer a “cease and desist” letter or by filing a lawsuit for patent infringement. If, however, a patented product is sold with a proper patent marking, the patent owner has then been provided with ”constructive” notice, and the patent owner can seek damages from the moment infringement began (subject, of course, to the other requirements for filing a patent infringement suit).
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