Astornet Technologies—the licensee of a method patent for securing “vehicular gate entries” at airports—could not sue three government contractors that allegedly induced or contributed to the direct infringement of the asserted patent by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled (Astornet Technologies Inc. v. BAE Systems, Inc., September 17, 2015, Taranto, R.). Because the allegations of direct infringement constituted the use of a patented invention by the United States government, Astornet’s claims of indirect infringement were barred by the provisions of 28 U.S.C. §1498(a).
A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.
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