A plaintiff, also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court. Plaintiff seeks a legal remedy, and if successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the plaintiff and make the appropriate court order like an order for damages.
A defendant is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a statute.
In a well-known case, Apple Inc vs VirnetX, relating to FaceTime video calling service, VirnetX sued Apple Inc for infringement of four patents of VirnetX used in its FaceTime video calling service (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,502,135, 7,418,504, 7,921,211 and 7,490,151). Apple was ordered to pay US$368.2 million in damages to VirnetX.
In this case, VirnetX initiatied law suit against Apple Inc for infringement of patents and hence VirnetX is a Plaintiff, whereas Apple Inc is a Defendant.
Following are the important sections of the Patent Act, where the terms Plaintiff and Defendant have been used:
U/S 104A [Burden of proof in case of suits concerning infringement]
Infringement in simple words is violation of rights of a patent holder. In any suit for infringement of a patent, plaintiff (Patentee) has burden of proof and this is specifically for the product patent where a patentee can compare infringed product with his patent claims and assess extent of infringement.
However, where the subject matter of patent is a process for obtaining a new product and the patentee could not establish through reasonable efforts to determine the process actually used by the infringer, the court may direct the defendant to prove that the process used by him to obtain the product, identical to the product of the patented process, is different from the patented process. Hence, in case of process patent infringement, burden of proof shifts from plaintiff to the defendant.
U/S 107 [Defenses, etc., in suits for infringement]
When a law-suit is filed by the plaintiff for infringement of his patent rights, the defendant shall defend himself and prove that he is not infringing rights of the plaintiff. All the grounds of revocation U/S 64 can be used as defense by the defendant.
U/S 109 [Right of exclusive licensee to take proceedings against infringement]
In any suit for infringement of a patent by an exclusive licensee, if the patentee does not join as plaintiff, he is added as a defendant, but a patentee so added as defendant shall not be liable for any costs unless he enters an appearance and takes part in the proceedings.
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