If you are new to patents, start here. These FAQs explain court rules and practice questions in everyday language. For doctrine deep dives that sit beside the FAQs, see Topics on the homepage (marking, Rule 36, dual-track ITC, willfulness, and Fintiv).

Find the guide you need

Start with the question that matches your situation. The Sources list below links to the individual guides and to longer explanations of patent marking, Rule 36, parallel ITC and district-court proceedings, willfulness, and Fintiv.

The longer guides

The drafting FAQ helps you write clearer patent claims and descriptions. The inventors FAQ lists questions to ask before filing. The litigation-practice FAQ gathers counsel lessons from recent board cases. The sued FAQ walks through first steps after a complaint in more depth.

Breakout topics

Patent marking under 35 U.S.C. 287(a) covers notice and licensee marking after VDPP v. Volkswagen. Rule 36 explains what a Federal Circuit affirmance without opinion means (and does not mean). Dual-track ITC plus district covers parallel import and damages campaigns. Willfulness and enhanced damages under section 284 are covered in the willfulness breakout (Halo, not Seagate alone). Fintiv and discretionary denial of IPR institution are covered in the Fintiv breakout.

More specific questions

The guides below cover notice letters, claim charts, provisional applications, patent-pending products, expired patents, and continued sales after notice. Marketplace guides address Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX), takedowns, court orders, and foreign sellers. Other guides cover prior-art submissions, the on-sale bar, design and utility patents, and settlement discussions.

Money, leverage, and edge cases

These pages cover funding and cost (insurance, litigation finance, typical case cost), injunction bonds and selling during appeal, section 285 fee awards, walk-away versus license and consent-judgment-plus-covenant structures, design-patent article-of-manufacture damages, FRAND/SEP differences, trade-secret claims paired with patents, inventorship correction, bankruptcy overlays, Amazon listing freezes, and competitor cease-and-desist triage. Open them from Sources below.

How to read them

Choose a guide from the Sources list below, then use its question headings to find the topic you need.