Building upon a 2011 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court addressing the intent requirement for inducing patent infringement, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently clarified in Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc. that an accused inducer’s good-faith belief of patent invalidity or noninfringement may negate the requisite intent required for finding any inducement liability.

Following Commil, companies that may be foreseeably subject to a claim of inducing infringement of a patent should seriously consider obtaining an opinion of qualified independent legal counsel as evidence of their good-faith belief that the patent is invalid, or not directly infringed by the end user, in order to prevent a costly verdict.

Originally published in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News on November 1, 2013.