Repair and Recycle as Direct Patent Infringement?

Repair and Recycle as Direct Patent Infringement?
Mineko Mohri

ISBN 978-90-411-3136-2
Kluwer Law International BV, The Netherlands

Patent law grants an inventor a ‘right to exclude’ others from using, selling, or importing the invention for a limited period in the country where the patent is granted. Under the domestic exhaustion doctrine, the patentee’s monopoly effectively ends at the first lawful, unconditional sale2 of the patented products. Thus, purchasers of patented products may use or resell them without interference from patentees. Such a phenomenon is referred to as that the patent was ‘consumed’ or ‘exhausted.