Location: Ono Auditorium

Topic: Indirect Patent Infringement

Speaker: Prof. Jacob S. Sherkow (Richard W. and Marie L. Corman Professor of Law at the College of Law, University of Illinouis)

Languages: English & Japanese

Outline: Jake Sherkow (University of Illinois College of Law) will deliver a lecture introducing the fundamentals of indirect patent infringement under U.S. law, with a focus on inducement doctrine under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b). Drawing on recent litigation and scholarship — including the “infringement by label” debate highlighted in the Supreme Court case Hikma v. Amarin — the talk will critically examine how current case law risks expanding inducement liability beyond its traditional requirement of active encouragement and causation. In doing so, the lecture will highlights broader questions about the proper limits of indirect infringement and the role of regulatory contexts in shaping liability—issues that also resonate in ongoing Japanese debates on the scope and structure of secondary patent liability.