What is induced infringement?

Within the context of patent law, there are several ways that a patent can be infringed. Induced infringement is one such way a patent can be violated, and this typically occurs where someone does not make, use or sell anything, but is still involved in infringing activity (think of it as “aiding and abetting” infringement). For example, if I ask my brother to have his company make and sell Doohickeys which you have a patent on, I may have induced infringement. However, an inducing infringer must take some initiating step of his own - so if my brother just orders some parts from me to use in his product which will ultimately infringe your Doohickey, I am not an inducing infringer because I did not take any active steps.