Please Help me Learn about these patent questions and understand.

Buy the book Patent It Yourself from amazon.com and read it -- not so you can file a patent application yourself (only a patent attorney should do that) but because the author explains patent law very plainly.

As for your question, the scope of a patent's protection is defined by its claims (which are at the very end of the document). Useful, non-obvious, and novel inventions can be patented -- and an "invention" includes both tangible things (machines and other articles of manufacture) and methods of doing something (processes).

In the first, the claim will recite Element A, Element B, Element C, etc. and the way each element is combined.

In the second, the claim will recite Step A, Step B, Step C, etc. and (sometimes) how each Step is done.

There is no analytical difference when considering whether a patent protecting a thing is being infringed or whether a patent protecting a process is being infringed. If an allegedly infringing product has each and every Element recited in a patent claim directed to a thing, then the patent is infringed. If an allegedly infringing process performs each and every Step recited in a patent claim directed to a process then the patent is infringed.

Hope that helps. And buy the book.

In addition to the information already provided there are a couple of points to make...

Patented methods are commonly used to patent computer software or other types of technology that can be more easily described by functional steps rather than structural elements. However, when it comes to infringement, process/method claims are analyzed in the same manner as apparatus/structural claims. The direct infringer must be carrying out each and every step of the claim.

Contributory and induced infringement arises when the entity that you want to sue is not the entity that is actually infringing the patent. However, as you noted, there must be at least one identifiable entity that is a direct infringer. Importantly though, the direct infringer does not have to be a party to the lawsuit.

Claims can be of several types, one of which is a process or method. Direct infringement in the case of a method generally requires that you show that one party performed all of the claimed steps. Contributory and induced infringment refer to types of infringment where multiple parties are involved. For example, I might send you a box that if you push a button on it performs the steps of a patented method. However, if I make the box but never push the button, I'm not a direct infringer, only the person that pushes the button is. However, I may have contributed to or induced infringement by making a device that has no other purpose but performing the patented method (that's an oversimplification, but hopefully a useful illustration).

Problems have arisen over the years because of the global economy. Often it is the case that part of an invention is made by one party, part by another, then is shipped to yet another party for assembly. The patent laws have adapted to try to catch the "guilty" in a variety of situations other than simple direct infringement where one party does everything.