I have always wondered what would happen in a circumstance where a company has patented a technology, and then another company uses that technology, but in a way that the company to which the patent belongs can't prove that the second company has indeed infringed upon that patent.
So for example, Intel has began to release products with their new tri-grate MOSFET technology, and it seems to have huge advantages over the regular planar MOSFETs. Now, in the hypothetical situation that Intel patented this technology (I'm sure they have, any reasonable company would) and AMD wanted to use the technology, how would Intel be able to prove that AMD was using this tri-gate technology in the event of a patent infringement lawsuit? The transistors are so small and buried under so many interconnect layers that it would be impossible to get access to them in order to photograph them with a microscope without destroying them. Now I don't see this happening, both companies seem pretty cool and mature and such lawsuits between them don't seem likely, but this is a great example of lawsuits regarding patent infringement where one can't necessarily prove that the patent was indeed infringed upon.
Another great instance of this type of thing would be software. Say a company had patented some software algorithm, and then another company comes along and uses the algorithm. How would the first company prove that the second company was using their patented technology, assuming the second company's software was closed source and proprietary?
"That's what"
-She
