Editing Doctrine of equivalents (section)

{{Short description|Concept in patent law}}
{{about|the patent doctrine|the trademark doctrine|Doctrine of foreign equivalents}}
The '''doctrine of equivalents''' is a legal rule in many (but not all) of the world's [[patent]] systems that allows a [[court]] to hold a party liable for [[patent infringement]] if the infringing device or process does not fall within the literal scope of a [[claim (patent)|patent claim]] but is nevertheless equivalent to the claimed [[invention]]. In the [[United States]], Judge [[Learned Hand]] has described its purpose as being "to temper unsparing logic and prevent an infringer from stealing the benefit of the invention."<ref>''Royal Typewriter Co. v. [[Remington Rand]], Inc.'', 168 F.2d 691, 692 (2d Cir. 1948).</ref>