If your opponent is unable to deliver Court documents to you, the litigation may continue in your absence. In Tradebanc International Pty Limited v Robert Balsdon and Trade Winds Express Card Company Pty Limited, the solicitors acting for Balsdon and Trade Winds ceased to act after filing a Notice of Defence. The software program was found to be inadequate for its intended use and a new software program was developed by a third party. Although the Court will assist patries which represent themselves in Court, there are many rules which must be complied with to ensure that you are able to best protect your interests. On these calculations, the US Patent Ofice will issue as many patents this year as were issued in the period of the late 1960s to early 1990s.
Patent litigation is on the increase both as source of revenue and tactical manoeuvre.
Major suppliers, including IBM, Microsoft, Xerox, Adobe, Autodesk, Computer Associates, Informix, Intuit, Oracle, Sequent Computers, Novell, have been parties to such litigation amongst themselves and other parties. The fact that you wrote the software or created other intellectual property from first principles will not prevent an injunction being granted to prevent you licensing your product as independent development is no defence to a patent infringement claim. Your responsibility for such an indemnity may be enormous. For this reason many multinational suppliers currently refuse to supply unlimited indemnities. McHattan had an objection to ASVS using the Taipan name in relation to goods which were included in his trade mark.