Rght of exclusive licensee to sue third party for infringment
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Posted by Lubarsky on February 17, 2002 at 21:31:06:
Consider the following situation: A is a patentee of a US patent. A gives B an exclusive license to the patent, but the license is limited to a certain Field of Use (meaning that B can use the patent only in B's Field but not in any other Field, and additionally, A is entitled to grant licenses to third parties in any Field other than B's Field). C infringes the patent in B's Field. Obviously A can sue C, but can B sue C ? I know that in some jurisdictions an exclusive licensee has standing to enforce a patent versus a third party. But in this case B's exclusivity is limited to a Field of Use - does this limitation harm his standing in enforcing the patent ? what's the default considering the License Agreement doesn't say anything about this ?
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