Expired Patents Allow Consumers To File Qui Tam Actions
Have you ever looked at your coffee cup, disposable razor or any other common household item and wondered when it was invented? And if you look closely, most of the time you’ll see stamped on the item a patent number, issued by the United States Patent Office to the inventor of the item. But what happens if the patent has expired, and the company owning the patent continues to sell the product as if the patent is still in effect? In cases like that, a consumer may file a Qui Tam action -- Latin for a lawsuit filed by an individual on behalf of the government pursuant to the federal False Claims Act -- against the company manufacturing an item with an expired patent. And the best part for a consumer is that lawsuits filed pursuant to the False Claims Act allow the filer to keep half of any damages recovered on behalf of the government.
For example, a sharp-eyed attorney in Washington, D.C. did some investigating after spotting patent markings on the lid to his daily cup of coffee and discovered that the patent had actually expired some 20 years before. Now the lawyer is seeking millions of dollars in damages in a Qui Tam suit against the lid maker, Solo Cup. The Associate Press reports that U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that the suit filed on behalf of the government by the attorney does not violate the constitutional separation of powers doctrine, and that the suit satisfied requirements of actual harm because the United States suffered when its patent laws were broken. This same attorney has also filed a similar suit against razor company Gillette. Both the Gillette and Solo Cup cases were filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, the National Law Journal reports in a May 12 story.
The U.S. Justice Department is also supporting a Qui Tam action in a separate case filed over Brooks Brothers' expired patent claim on its "original Adjustolox" bow tie. The department sought to intervene on behalf of the plaintiff after a New York federal judge dismissed the suit on standing grounds.
Consumers should take a look at items they use regularly, and see if the item has a patent number stamped upon it. It may be that the patent has expired, in which case a Qui Tam action may be initiated against the manufacturer. If successful, individuals filing such cases may end up with an award of up to half of any damages collected.
If you know or suspect that an item is being manufactured with an expired patent, please contact us to aid you in a patent investigation and/or to discuss your legal options.