How to avoid US patent law, chip industry’s biggest challenge

By Staff Writer | Jan 04, 2016 07:29 PM EST

Patent infringement lawsuits are expensive, time-consuming, and tedious to inventors and entrepreneurs, which is why it is best to avoid them. One of the latest US patent law issues is the chip industry's challenge of getting sued for infringement even if the contract is signed abroad as long as the chip was designed in the USA.

In a report by Electronics Weekly, the Corporate Counsel posted in their website that the chip industry will have to address a certain issue in 2016. There are assumptions that chips transacted outside of the US are not covered by the US patent law, despite them being designed in the US. However, Carnegie Mellon University v Marvell ruled otherwise, stating that chips designed in the US are subject to the US patent law, despite being made, ordered, delivered, contracted, and paid for abroad.

According to Neustel, it is always best to avoid US patent laws than face them. They are costly, the owner may get preliminary injunction, it is time-consuming, and even the customers may be sued.

Law 360 wrote that some of the most popular US Patent Law cases in 2015 include the Apple v. Samsung. Another is the technical standards detailing the specifications and procedures established by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Finally, there is also the Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank International, which claims that a generic computer implementation of a certain abstract idea were not eligible for patenting.

The Corporate Counsel suggested ways to avoid US patent laws. Conduct system and post-layout simulations for overseas machines and make waveforms from the simulations done overseas. Transfer the manufacturing of sample products to foreign locations, and do the sample marking process outside the US.

It would be best to avoid products being shopped directly from the US. So, store the samples abroad before they reach the customers outside of the US. Transfer the configuration and programming of the sample products abroad. The testing process should also be overseas.

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