As with our consideration if novelty and obviousness, we will confine our discussion to aspects of U.S. law that may differ from what is common in other parts of the world.

35 USC § 271 gives a patentee [180] the right to bring an action both for direct infringement against anyone who within the United States makes, uses, offers to sell or sells any patented invention within the United States or who imports a patented invention into the United States or who carries out certain other acts discussed below and for indirect infringement against anyone who actively induces an act of infringement of such an invention or who contributes to infringement by selling a component of a patented machine, manufacture, combination or composition or a material for use in practicing a patented process. The statute specifically states that offers for sale are infringements only if the sale that is offered will occur before the expiration of the patent. [181] Certain specific provisions also apply for infringement of patents relating 1) to the export from the United States of "all or a substantial portion" of the components of a patented invention in "such manner as to actively induce" their combination outside the United States; 2) to import of products into the United States of products made abroad which had they been made in the United States would have been an infringement of a United States patent; 3) to drugs so that testing required to enable filing of an application for marketing approval with the FDA is not itself an infringement, although the filing of application for marketing approval itself is an act of infringement if the purpose of the filing is to engage in commercial exploitation of the invention before the expiration of the patent and 4) to patents relating to medical processes.