If the tool is a patented product of Company A, that is, Company A has applied for a patent and still has the right to it, and you produce and sell it without his consent, you will be liable. If you infringe Company A's patent rights, Company A can sue you.
For invention and utility model patents, there are two aspects that constitute infringement: formal conditions and substantive conditions.
The formal requirements include: the implementation act ① involves a valid Chinese patent; ② without the permission or authorization of the patentee; ③ for the purpose of production and operation. Whether the perpetrator has subjective intention is not included, but it can be used as a basis for measuring the seriousness of the circumstances.
The substantive requirements are technical conditions. There are mainly the following forms of expression: if the technical features involved by the actor are ① all the same as the technical features of the patent, it constitutes infringement; ② if there are more technical features than the patent, it also constitutes infringement; ③ if they are the same as the technical features of the patent, There are differences, but if the different technical features are equivalent to the technical features of the patent, it still constitutes infringement; otherwise, it does not constitute infringement.
For design patents, Article 24 of the Patent Law stipulates that after a design patent right is granted, unless otherwise provided by laws and regulations, no unit or individual may, without the permission of the patentee, Use the same or similar design to implement its patent for the purpose of production and business operations. The term "similarity" as mentioned in the preceding paragraph means that there is no substantial difference in the overall visual effect between the infringing design and the authorized design.
Legal liability for infringement: According to legal provisions, the legal liability that patent infringers should bear includes civil liability, administrative liability and criminal liability.
(1) Administrative responsibilities. For patent infringement, the patent management department has the power to order the infringer to stop the infringement, order corrections, impose fines, etc. At the request of the parties, the patent management department can also mediate the amount of compensation for patent infringement.
(2) Civil liability. ① Stop the infringement ② Compensate for losses ③ Eliminate the impact.
(3) Criminal liability. In accordance with the provisions of the Patent Law and Criminal Law, if the circumstances are serious and the person counterfeiting someone else's patent shall be held criminally responsible, the person directly responsible shall be held criminally responsible.
Amount of compensation for infringement
The Patent Law revised in 2009 clearly stipulates the method for determining the amount of compensation for patent infringement, which is divided into four levels:
The first level is determined based on the losses suffered by the patentee due to infringement.
At the second level, if the loss cannot be determined, the benefits obtained by the infringer due to the infringement will be used.
At the third level, if neither the loss nor the benefit can be determined, it shall be reasonably determined based on a multiple of the patent license fee.
The fourth level, if the losses, profits and royalties are difficult to determine, the compensation will be 10,000 to 1 million yuan based on the type of patent, the nature and circumstances of the infringement. This 1 to 1 million yuan is also called statutory compensation. Before the amendment of the Patent Law in 2009, the upper limit of this amount was 500,000 yuan.