If a bilinear map is continuous, continuity at gives such that whenever . For nonzero , apply this to and . Bilinearity givesIf either input is zero, the inequality follows from bilinearity directly.
Conversely, suppose the product bound holds with . At a fixed point ,Its norm is at most , which tends to zero as . Thus the product bound is equivalent to joint continuity. This is boundedness criterion for a bilinear map.