Received a Design Patent from the USPTO a three years ago. Put the Design on the market for licensing. Noted a Major Manufacturers applied for published application in 2013 for a invention to be installed in their product. A portion of their invention looks like a portion of my design. If they are granted the patent for their invention and use portion of my design. Is that consider patent infringement by using non-expired design for their invention.
1 Answer
Your question appears to blur the distinction between a third party patent publication and a product of the third party. A patent might effectively block the implementation of that which is described and/or claimed in another patent publication, but a patent publication cannot "infringe" a patent. Patent infringement generally requires the making, using, offering to sell, selling of a patented invention within the US or the importation of a patented invention into the US. See 35 USC Section 271.
If the manufacturers you noted above actually incorporate your patented design into a product, then you may have grounds for a patent infringement action, but I note you indicate the manufacturers use a "portion" of your design. While one need not incorporate an exact copy of your design into a product to infringe, the design of the product would need to appear to an ordinary observer, taking into account the prior art, to be the substantially same as your patented design.
