IP Intelligence › Real Scenarios › The letter that started the wrong fight
Real-life scenario · fictionalised
The letter that started the wrong fight
A company notices a competitor selling a similar product. Their commercial lawyer sends a strongly worded letter to the competitor and copies three of the competitor's largest distributors, asserting infringement and threatening proceedings. Four weeks later the competitor files a revocation petition, and two distributors pause orders from both companies.
What went wrong?
Threats have consequences in India
Section 106 makes groundless threats of infringement proceedings actionable. A person aggrieved can seek a declaration that the threats are unjustifiable, an injunction against their continuance, and damages. Copying distributors is exactly the conduct the provision is aimed at.
So a letter intended to protect the market instead created a second dispute, with the company as defendant.
The validity work that was never done
Nobody had run an invalidity search before the letter went out. The competitor's counsel found a Korean application from 2011 that the examiner had not cited, and built the revocation petition around it.
Before enforcing, the useful sequence is: fresh invalidity search, read your own prosecution history for concessions, claim chart against the competitor's actual product, then decide what outcome you want. A letter is the last step, not the first.
What should have happened
- Commissioned the invalidity search the other side would commission, before writing to anyone.
- Prepared a claim chart mapping the competitor's product to each claim element.
- Written to the competitor only, not to its customers.
- Decided in advance whether the objective was an injunction, damages, a licence or a design change.
The first letter is the most important document in a patent dispute, and it is usually written by whoever is free that week.
This scenario is a composite teaching example written by Ragulika IP. It does not describe any real client, application or matter, and any resemblance to a specific case is coincidental.
Sources & further reading
- The Patents Act, 1970 (consolidated to 1 August 2024) — Official IP India text
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Someone copied my technology. What are my options?
Working out what you actually have, before writing to anyone.
Not sure whether this applies to your invention?
The honest answer usually needs someone to look at your actual disclosure, your timeline and the prior art. That is a conversation, not an article.
Educational guidance, not legal advice. This material is published by Ragulika IP for general education and information. It is not legal advice, it does not create a professional-client relationship, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own facts. Patentability, infringement, prosecution strategy and every other IP outcome turn on the specific facts and on the law and Patent Office practice as they stand at the time you act. Please take professional advice before making a decision, and read the underlying provision or judgment before relying on any point stated here.
Last reviewed by Ragulika IP on 2026-08-23. Indian patent law and Patent Office practice change; check the position before you rely on it.