What is a ‘patent marking’?

A patent marking is a designation or symbol that indicates a product is covered by one or more patents. All patents issued in North Carolina, and indeed throughout the United States, must include a patent marking. This marking typically consists of a patent number and a brief statement indicating the product is protected by one or more patents. Patent markings serve a number of important functions. For example, they allow the public to easily identify which products are covered by patents. This information can be used to perform research into the patent protection that a product has and to obtain information about the related rights and obligations. Patent markings also allow patent owners to inform potential infringers that their product is protected by a patent, which can serve as a deterrent to potential infringement. In addition, failure to place patent markings on a product can invalidate a patent owner’s rights to damages or injunctive relief from infringement. As such, it is important to ensure that products covered by a patent are correctly identified with the necessary patent marking. It is also important to keep patent markings up-to-date in the event of any changes or updates to the patent protection that a product is provided with. Furthermore, some jurisdictions, such as North Carolina, require that patent owners actively monitor their patent markings. This is because a patent owner may not be able to collect damages for infringement that occurred prior to a patent marking being placed on a particular product.

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What is a ‘patent marking’?

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