doctrine of equivalents
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English
[edit]
Noun
[edit]doctrine of equivalents (uncountable)
- (law, US) A legal rule in most patent systems that allows a court to hold a party liable for patent infringement when the infringing device or process does not fall within the literal scope of a patent claim, but nevertheless is equivalent to the claimed invention.
See also
[edit]- doctrine of foreign equivalents, an unrelated doctrine of trademark law