{"id":1070,"date":"2017-01-23T12:45:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T20:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/?p=1070"},"modified":"2017-01-23T13:26:50","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T21:26:50","slug":"patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Patent Rights should be balanced by Consumer Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What if you couldn\u2019t sell your old car without getting a patent license? What if you couldn\u2019t bring your smartphone into the US without the phone maker\u2019s permission? It would be surprising, to say the least. There\u2019s even a good chance you wouldn\u2019t feel like you owned the products that you bought.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not the world we want to see. That\u2019s why, today, together with EFF, Public Knowledge and others, <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/01.23.2017-FINAL-brief-lexmark-merits.pdf\">we filed a brief<\/a> with the U.S. Supreme Court explaining how a legal theory called \u201c<i>patent exhaustion<\/i>\u201d is a necessary boundary to protect consumers and prevent the overstepping of patent law on user rights.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/patentquest.mozilla.org\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1075 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop.png\" alt=\"Patentquest crop\" width=\"1057\" height=\"719\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop.png 1057w, https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop-300x204.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop-768x522.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop-600x408.png 600w, https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop-1000x680.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1057px) 100vw, 1057px\" \/><\/a>The parties in the case are the laser printer manufacturer Lexmark, which owns patents covering their toner cartridges, and a small company named Impression Products, which acquires <i>used<\/i> Lexmark cartridges and sells them refurbished. The Federal Circuit decided that Impression Products infringed Lexmark\u2019s patents when it bought these used Lexmark toner cartridges, imported them into the U.S., and resold them. On first impression, the case may seem a bit esoteric. But, when you take a deeper look, this ruling contradicts well established law meant to protect consumers.<\/p>\n<p>A patent is a legally sanctioned monopoly during which the patent owner can exclude all others from certain activities, including making, selling or importing the patented invention. An important limitation on these rights is that they end when a product is sold, a doctrine called \u201cpatent exhaustion\u201d that has been recognized in the U.S. for almost 150 years.<\/p>\n<p>Patent exhaustion enables all of us to use the products we buy without needing a separate patent license, including re-selling those items second-hand. This is significant because, without these limits, you could be prohibited from doing many of the things you have always been able to do with the products you own.<\/p>\n<p>In a world where the things we buy (from cars to smartphones to toner cartridges) are increasingly dependent on technology and sometimes <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2016\/12\/20\/the-invisible-patents-in-your-holiday-shopping-cart\/\">hundreds of thousands of patents<\/a>, it\u2019s even more important that patent law protects the rights of users to freely use the products they purchase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if you couldn\u2019t sell your old car without getting a patent license? What if you couldn\u2019t bring your smartphone into the US without the phone maker\u2019s permission? It would &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":324,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46878,283230],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Patent Rights should be balanced by Consumer Rights - Open Policy &amp; Advocacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jishnu Menon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/\",\"name\":\"Patent Rights should be balanced by Consumer Rights - Open Policy &amp; Advocacy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-23T20:45:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-23T21:26:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#\/schema\/person\/8ebe06e48dcb6cbf38544d3531bcdf6f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop.png\",\"width\":1057,\"height\":719},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Patent Rights should be balanced by Consumer Rights\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/\",\"name\":\"Open Policy &amp; Advocacy\",\"description\":\"Mozilla&#039;s official blog on open Internet policy initiatives and developments\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#\/schema\/person\/8ebe06e48dcb6cbf38544d3531bcdf6f\",\"name\":\"Jishnu Menon\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/776b5ef9aa071f8e475866f4262d58f5\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/863ab1b225a96b03b79dc4d205b51085?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/863ab1b225a96b03b79dc4d205b51085?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jishnu Menon\"},\"description\":\"Associate General Counsel at Mozilla. I work on business, legal and policy issues at Mozilla.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@jishnu_menon\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Patent Rights should be balanced by Consumer Rights - Open Policy &amp; Advocacy","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jishnu Menon","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/","name":"Patent Rights should be balanced by Consumer Rights - Open Policy &amp; Advocacy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop.png","datePublished":"2017-01-23T20:45:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-23T21:26:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#\/schema\/person\/8ebe06e48dcb6cbf38544d3531bcdf6f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/01\/Patentquest-crop.png","width":1057,"height":719},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/01\/23\/patent-rights-should-be-balanced-by-consumer-rights\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Patent Rights should be balanced by Consumer Rights"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/","name":"Open Policy &amp; Advocacy","description":"Mozilla&#039;s official blog on open Internet policy initiatives and developments","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#\/schema\/person\/8ebe06e48dcb6cbf38544d3531bcdf6f","name":"Jishnu Menon","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/776b5ef9aa071f8e475866f4262d58f5","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/863ab1b225a96b03b79dc4d205b51085?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/863ab1b225a96b03b79dc4d205b51085?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jishnu Menon"},"description":"Associate General Counsel at Mozilla. 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