Ask HN: Can the location of a company help avoid patent disputes? - throwawayqq
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lucozade
Patents are territorial. By this I mean that you get a patent to cover a
territory e.g. the US or EU. If you have, say, a US patent and someone
disputes it in the US then your being located somewhere else doesn't help you
any.

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throwawayqq
So, say Big Corp. in the US calls out a company located in another country for
patent infringement in their SaaS that is being used by US users, where Big
Corp have their territory patent. Are you saying the international company can
be sued by the US company? Where would they even sue them since they are not
US based and other countries commonly don't acknowledge other countries' IP
and laws?

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lucozade
If Big Corp has a US patent and Inter Corp is infringing in the US then Big
Corp can take them to a US court. If they win then either Inter desists in the
US or pays a licence fee (or whatever the court decides).

The fact that Inter Corp is incorporated somewhere else is irrelevant as it's
its operation in the US that will be brought to book. Outside of the US it's a
different matter and will depend on what international patents Big Corp has,
where Inter Corp is infringing etc.

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sergiust
try getting a patent in Singapore. it's a neutral country and it is the
international arbitration court. even if you can't win, you can put the entity
infringing on your patent into a caveat for any jurisdiction in the world.

