Blocking Patent Law and Legal Definition
Blocking patent refers to one of two patents, both of which cannot be effectively practiced without infringing the other. For instance, suppose John patents an improvement of George’s patented invention, then John will not be able to practice his improvement without infringing George’s patent. George also would not be able to use the improvement without infringing John’s patent. Therefore, in many instances owners of blocking patents cross-license each other.
