Injunctive Relief, Equity, and Misuse of Rights in U.S. Patent Law

In the United States, the doctrine of patent misuse and the availability of injunctive relief in patent infringement cases have been adjusted to reflect the new realities of the evolving patent landscape. The realities had challenged the established presumptions that courts had made about patent holders – the presumption that a patent holder would suffer irreparable harm if he could not exclude others from making, using, offering to sell, selling, or importing his patented invention, and the presumption that holding a patent by itself confers sufficient market power on the patent holder to allow the holder to engage in anti-competitive behavior. The question is whether the adjustments that have been made will well serve the ultimate purpose of promoting innovation