Your rights as a patent owner include but are not limited to the following:

  1. the right to obtain a court order (called an injunction) to stop a competitor infringing
  2. the right to obtain monetary compensation (called damages or account of profits) from an infringer that has unlawfully used your patent
  3. the right to obtain a court order for delivery up or disposal of infringing articles
  4. the right to grant a licence to another person to exploit your patent, in return for royalties and other payments
  5. the right to sell your patent
  6. the right to gift your patent in your will
  7. the right to mark your product and its packaging as being patented

If you have applied for a patent and the application is pending, you may mark your product, and its packaging, to indicate that a patent is pending, for example, by using the phrase ‘Patent pending’. Businesses may find this a useful marketing strategy. However, where the patent application is subsequently withdrawn, you can no longer claim such application in respect of your product or its packaging or else such inaccurate or false claim may be subject to both civil and criminal sanctions.