KHE International Patent Office
Case Study

Failure due to neglecting to submit variation applications of related inventions

Company A held a fundamental patent P regarding an on-chip circuit of semiconductor devices.  The competing Company B paid loyalties to Company A to manufacture the semiconductor devices including such an on-chip circuit as well as submitted many patent applications regarding improved and related technologies relevant such on-chip circuit.  Company A was requested to pay royalties for the devices they had been manufacturing by Company B the month when the term of the patent P ended.

Cause of failure of Company A

It is necessary to obtain patents for the inventions relative to fundamental patent technology.  Company A had to submit patent applications related to the basic patent invention which is in a constantly advancing field, even it is a technically dominating patent.