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Under the doctrine of patent exhaustion, otherwise referred to as the “first sale doctrine,” the initial authorized sale of a patented item exhausts a patent owner’s rights to further control the sale, offer for sale, or use of the item. Bowman v. Monsanto Co., 133 S. Ct. 1761 (2013).  In other words, once a patented article is sold to a buyer in a sale authorized by the patentee, the buyer, or any subsequent purchaser of the article, is free to use or resell the article without restraint from patent law.  The doctrine of patent exhaustion thus seeks to prevent patent holders from receiving any overcompensation or potential double recovery, under the assumption that the patent owner has already received a just reward from the initial sale.  Procedurally, an accused infringer can raise patent exhaustion as an affirmative defense in a patent infringement action.
Continue Reading Federal Circuit Reaffirms Its Longstanding Patent Exhaustion Precedents in Lexmark. v. Impression Products (Fed. Cir. Feb. 12, 2016) (en banc)