Patent infringement is very common these days and the cause for one of the most time consuming and challenging national / international litigations. Piracy is rampant and it is not always that the parent company even comes to know about the patent infringements taking place abroad. However there are insurance companies that provide patent litigation insurance (PLI) to protect the inventor or a third party from the risk of patent infringement. The legal cost of patent litigation is usually high and this can also be totally covered by the insurance company.

A regular patent litigation case in the US runs into millions of dollars and so and is not usually taken up as a business investment. Patent infringement is highest in the health and pharmaceutical sectors. The three basic types of insurance policies available today are,

• Defense and indemnity - Insurance company will pay all liabilities/damages to the insurer
• Only defense policy - reimburses only the cost of defense
• Enforcement coverage policy - pays all legal/litigation expenses to go offensive against the infringer

Patent infringement insurance is bound to be more popular in the future. It is very much essential for the smaller companies who will not be able to afford patent litigations due to the high costs involved. High tech companies that have a developed research and development wing should have a fixed budget for patent litigation and must keep in touch with the outside patent counsel and clearly communicate their objectives and expectations from a patent litigation case.

Managed Outsource Solutions (MOS) is a US based legal outsourcing service provider who offers very affordable but high quality legal services including, intellectual property litigation, IP research, patent litigation, patent infringement litigation, legal transcription, legal documentation, litigation support, legal animation, legal website design, and legal coding services to its clients in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.

Labels: Intellectual property, IP litigation, legal outsourcing, patent infringement