Bold Today Show Episode 124 | Patent Litigation: Know Your Burden

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Posted on August 18, 2023

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By J.D. Houvener
Patent Attorney and Founder

Hi I’m J.D. Houvener, your host of the Bold Today Show. Were you the inventor entrepreneur or business owner? Get your daily dose of inspiration so you can make the world a better place. [Music]

We’re in part two of our 10-part litigation series. This is all about how to get around infringement and how to define it into a jury. What burden does the plaintiff have to show that the defendant is indeed infringing?

Burden, right? What does it mean? Well you may have heard of this in the criminal law context – beyond a reasonable doubt, right? That’s the high, the probably the highest level of burden that the plaintiff has to show. Right, the state has to show that the defendant, the criminal, is guilty the crime beyond any reasonable doubt. You know that is, that’s beyond a preponderance, beyond a convincing amount, even beyond likely guilty. Right there’s just not a shadow of a doubt that the individual is guilty. That’s the highest level of burden.

For patent litigation the burden of proof is actually a preponderance – a preponderance simply means more likely than not. That’s it. That’s all the plaintiff has to go to show and demonstrate to the jury that it’s more likely than not that the accused infringed product is infringing the patent claims. So that’s it. When it comes to infringement, that’s the duty of what the plaintiff has to show in their attorney through the Markman hearing, through the different claims processes and their expert witnesses. That’s the burden that needs to be shown.

So if any questions about patent litigation, we’re going to go through a lot of these to this coming week and next week. If you have any more questions about that please go to our website at BoldPatents.com. We’ve got some great information about patent litigation and all the prosecution steps that come before that.

I’m your host J.D. Houvener of the Bold Today Show. Go big, go bold!

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