The doctrine of equivalent allows a patent holder to hold as in
infringement a product or process that does not correspond to the
literal terms of the claims of the patent but performs substantially
the same function in substantially the same way to obtain the same
result
In Warner Jenkinson v Hilton Davis, the US Court that the doctrine
of equivalent must be applied to each element, not to the two
inventions as a whole; and, furthermore. The Court also said that
the objective principles of patent infringement should be applied,
and the similarities between elements should be determined at the
time of infringement.
See also Westinghouse; Graver Tank; Festo, EPC Protocol new
para 2.
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