What to do this week
A document with a patent number on it arrived. Almost none of it has to be answered today. Six things do belong in the next seven days.
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Step 1. Confirm the real deadline
In federal court a response to a complaint is generally due 21 days after service, but waivers, extensions and the particular court all move that date. Find the one that applies to you and write it down. A demand letter carries no court deadline, though it may set one of its own, and it starts real obligations either way.
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Step 2. Stop the automatic deletion
Most companies delete email and files on a schedule and have forgotten they set it up. Suspend it today for anything touching the product being accused, and put the instruction to your IT people in writing. Courts treat lost documents seriously, and this is one of the few early mistakes that cannot be repaired later.
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Step 3. Call your insurance broker
Some business policies cover intellectual property defense, and some of those require notice within a short window. Late notice can forfeit coverage you have already paid for. Ask even if you are fairly sure the answer is no.
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Step 4. Keep the speculation off email
Internal messages guessing at whether you infringe are the messages that get read back to you later. Record facts, not theories. Say this to your team now rather than after the thread exists, and route the actual analysis through a lawyer, where it has a chance of staying confidential.
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Step 5. Gather four things
The patent itself, by number. Everything you received, with the date it arrived. A plain description of how your product actually works, written by the person who built it. And the names of the people who worked on it. A first meeting with these in hand is a different meeting.
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Step 6. Interview more than one lawyer
Ask each of them whether they will read the patent's full prosecution history themselves, whether they can follow your technology without someone translating it for them, and what they would decline to spend your money on. The answers vary more than you would expect. Take the third question seriously.
What not to do
Do not call the other side to explain yourself. Do not redesign the product overnight on a guess about what the patent covers. Do not forward the document to the whole company. Do not go quiet and wait, because deadlines run whether or not anyone is watching them. Do not read the patent's opening pages and conclude you are safe, since the numbered claims at the very end are the part that decides anything. And do not assume this means you did something wrong, because a complaint is one side's allegation, copying is not required for infringement, and most patent disputes end in a negotiated resolution rather than a verdict.
He kept us fully informed at every stage, explained complex issues in understandable terms.
If one of the six is unclear for your situation, the quickest way through it is a phone call.
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