Thank you for your reply. And yes, in my experience, the patent indemnification clause was the "white knight" on the very rare occasions when issues would arise. Upon notification from the damaged party, some internal consideration before a flurry of letters to our supplier reminding them of the contract terms and conditions and to the damaged party advising as to whom they should direct future inquiries. I don't recall a single time where we needed to be further involved, but that may simply be due to settlement by the truly affected parties.

I believe this is one reason that possible infringers are first simply notified (vice immediately imposing formal legal action). It provides the opportunity to advise of any impacting contract clauses to which the damaged party would not be privy, and redirect their action as appropriate.

It may be that my experience differs because I was in the aerospace/defense industry, where all the players were very mature companies and where imposition of these clauses was pretty universal, and this was known.

Thank you....

SGE