This research investigates the challenges of enforcement of patent rights in geographically
divisible inventions. It considers aspects of technological progress
which pose challenges to the established system of patent protection based on
the territorial limitation of rights. The analysis focuses on substantive patent
law, especially on the infringement provisions. It is carried out in the context
of Internet-related
inventions, which demonstrate an extraordinarily construed
technical nature, namely geographical divisibility. This leads to the development
of a research question of whether the infringement standard is appropriate in
relation to the technological development in ICTs.
This avenue of research is motivated by two sets of arguments. On the one
hand side, the courts in Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States affirmed
the specific and different nature of Internet-related
inventions. On the
other hand side, the foundations of patent law assure the right-holder
the possibility
to enforce the right against any infringer. Should it be the case that territorial
limitation of patent rights prevents the right holder from enforcing the
patent in a geographically divisible invention, it would render patents on such
inventions meaningless, which would remove the reasons to use the patent
system.