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Information that You Need to Know About Prior Art Search

2021-04-19T08:28:54.848Z

A patent, in simple terms, is defined as the legal construct that will give a grant to the patent owners to uniquely practice or manufacture the invention in the approved nation for a certain period. Right now, the time limit is 20 years from the patent application filing date. In the USA, patents are granted for discoveries that are not only useful but also need to be non-obvious and novel in the prior art light. The non-obvious and novelty of the invention is dependent on the prior art search. The prior art refers to any data publicly available in any form to the patent application filing.

Definition of Prior Art

Searching for the prior art involves looking out for data in various publicly available resources to identify if your invention is already present in the market, previously detailed, or described in other references. If any discovery is present in the prior art reference, the patent application will get rejected as anticipated by the prior art. In other words, if there is any invention already published and matches your discovery with a date before your patent file application, the application is not novel and is thus ineligible for patent security. So it is always better to hire a professional company for a prior art search service so that you never miss out on anything and your patent will get approved on the first go.

The most obvious prior art form is the patents that are previously published and granted patent applications. But even without the patent application presence for filing, an existing product in the market never filed for a patent application is known as prior art. A technological concept that is almost 100 years old can also be prior art. An idea previously described but cannot operate due to the existing time technologies is also called prior art. The prior art sources include published patent applications, books, patents, products, and periodicals. However, the examiner of the USPTO office (the United States Patent and Trademark Office) uses the most common prior art of previous granted patent applications and patents.

Different types of Prior Art Search

Prior art search service by a reputed company considers the following four forms before filing a discovery for the patent application.

Novelty Search

Novelty search assists an inventor decides if the discovery is novel before the patent owner commits the resources essential for acquiring a patent and is done when the inventor files for the patent application.

Clearance Search

A clearance search is the search of the patents issued to verify if the process or the product is violating some else’s pending or existing patent.

Validity Search

A validity search is conducted after the issue of the patent, the primary purpose of which is to identify the prior art that the patent office might have ignored or overlooked. These might be useful for the competitors who are searching to content the granted patents validity.

Landscape search

A landscape search will offer you a high-level technological view and currently perform to understand the land lay when getting introduced to the new technical segment, including the latest trends in competition, activity filing, adjacent or white space technologies, and technology.

Significance of the Prior art Search Services

Prior art search is significant as it controls the capacity to gain rights over the IP or Intellectual Property over the invention. If the owner cannot obtain the required IP rights, the discovery might have a reduced value in the market. It is due to the inventor being incapable of preventing the competitors from entering the niche market or getting forced to purchase the licenses from the current right holders of the IP.

With no prior art search, the inventor will continue to perform in a data vacuum and cannot form an educated opinion on whether the owner might obtain an invention patent. Thus a Prior-Art Search Service is significant to:

> Decide if the invention is non-obvious and novel, compared to the prior public art
> Accounts for the prior art are closed before patent file application drafting. For instance, you might want to state the improvements or merits over the related prior art as this will assist in persuading the patent office that the discovery is new and unique
> Be always prepared for the invention discussion
> Search for the discovery that you might have accidentally infringed on their invention
> Save money through the present development detection
> Identify the latest research field publications and keep the updated progress in the record created by the others
> Acquire statistical analysis on the innovative organizations of the niche field
> Avoid submitting the patent applications with claims or that can get rejected
> Development of strong strategies for the patent claim before filing for the patent application. It will also reduce the extensive amendment chances
> Understanding of how your discovery will fit correctly into the technological field
> Search for the people who might infringe on your discovery someday
> Identify the strength of the invention
> Clarify the best partners with whom you can form a collaboration
> Access the patented invention strength
> Cancel an approved patent implemented against you by the new invalidating prior art > detection, not considered in the patent granting process.

Relation between Lawsuits and Prior Art Searches

If someone sues you based on an infringement lawsuit, then a prior art search can assist you in these circumstances. You can conduct yourself or hire a patent firm for the prior art search services to find out if your invention is infringed or not. It might also invalidate your patent before a trial or an action before the court. If their claim proves to be invalid, they will not have any ground for maintaining against you for the patent infringement.

Wrapping it up

In most cases, it is advised to the inventors to carry out a prior art search with attention to both the invention’s technical features and patentability legal factors. A patent application for the invention is not only a paper but also a legal document. So search well before making sure that your invention is the only thing present in the market.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Patent Filing In India For An Invention

2021-02-16T07:19:21.697Z

A patent is a type of right granted to the inventor. This patent application gives them full rights for creating and selling an invention with copyright permission. These are given for a specific period. During this tenure, the discovery gets protection from other businesses, individuals, or organizations. No one will be allowed legally to create or sell anything that will be similar to that discovery. In other words, a patent will guarantee you that the only one who will have profit from the invention will be the owner itself.

When the patent remains valid, the owner can offer another organization or company the license or permission for manufacturing the technology, product or design declared in the agreement. The patent owner usually deals with the companies in this path when he/she does not want to sell the full rights. In simple terms, a patent filing in India will offer control on how to make, sell or use a product, design, or technology invented by you.

Process of Patent Application in India

The legal and the first representative of the invention can file a patent in India. You can apply for the patent personally or jointly with the patent attorney that will require legitimate assignment proof. You can submit a patent application directly to the Official patent office in India or through the patent cooperation treaty with the corresponding or conversational patent applications in India. The patent offices are located in four metropolitan cities of India which are Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai.

When you file for a patent application directly in the patent offices, it must include a full specification. However, for patent filing or PCT, the patent must file the complete invention specification. Inventors often file a provisional application when the discovery is in the processor requires some modifications. However, you have to file the full project specifications within one year from the provisional patent application issue date. When the inventor goes for a patent application with a full description, design, specifications, and other details, the examiner would consider converting the provisional patent rights to non-provisional and permanent ones.

The specifications for filing a provisional patent application should include a title with a short description and title, drawing if the discovery demands so. In the case of converting the provisional patent application, there should also be the best mode description with the other details already mentioned. You will not be able to file for a provisional patent application in India if it is already rejected or fined in other countries. It is also applicable if the patent is a PCT one. You have to make sure that every patent application should include only original ideas and concepts. If you think that you cannot handle all this application process, you can hire a professional patent attorney in India who will take care of the entire process at an affordable rate.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Indian Patent Filing

To make an authentic and well-informed decision, the investor should be well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the Indian Patent filing. Let’s have a quick look at each of them.

Pros

Most of the time, an investor requires a financial backup or aid from the investors for selling their idea. It might have a chance of theft of their concepts or ideas. Thus if they file for a patent before approaching them, they will have a warranty that no one can steal their discovery.
The patent will allow the person to be a monopoly in the market. The inventor will be the only ones who can sell, distribute, export, and import the product, design, or technology; they might earn a lot of profit. No matter how small the profit margin, people will buy the product since you will be the only one is ruling the market. The financial advantages of the patents will be the largest allure.
An inventor only knows how to improve the quality of the existing products and enhance it better. In this situation, the discovery owner can file for a patent to ensure that anyone else will not start manufacturing the design, technology, or product and begin designing it.
The patent owner can ask for a premium for creating the invention as there is no other similar item in the market.
If the inventor does not want to manufacture the invention, they might sell the license or grant manufacturing permission to the other company. Here the discovery owner will get a royalty when every sale occurs. It will be beneficial for those who do not have sufficient money to market the invention.

Cons

An invention disclosure is one of the biggest drawbacks of the Indian Patent Filing. Since the audience is aware of the technical data, anyone can recreate it. That is why some of the patent owners want to keep the discovery a secret.
A patent filing comes with lawsuit threats. Competitors always find some way or the other for invalidating the patent or file a case against infringement. In other cases, people might even claim injunctions or damages, both of which require an ample amount of money and time.
The patent filing process is not only extended but also time-consuming. It might take years before the authorities grant the patent, which means there is a high risk for the technology becoming obsolete and market altering risk.

Final Words

When anyone contemplates the pros and cons of the patent file in the India process, the return will always win hands down. But you should consider each aspect carefully. Compare if the advantages will overcome the drawbacks before filing for a patent application. For a start-up company in the initial stage, patent filing in India means a lot of complexity or cost, but it can also be one of the stepping stones for success.

How Patent Research And Analysis Help In Making Research And Development Decisions

2020-11-20T07:54:30.539Z

The total number of patents is enhanced with each passing day, covering numerous technological spaces, including various non-conventional segments like software patents, life forms, and business methods. Sometimes patents are also granted for the different types of inventions like beer with an umbrella or diapers for the birds. There are several patents present on the technologies which are dependent on minute alternations of the current process. In these circumstances, it is very significant for the organizations to decide the patent value so that they can take the business decisions like cross collaborations, infringement suit initiations, mergers, advanced research, licensing, joint venture, development programs, and acquisitions.

Conventionally, patent research and analysis are carried out due to the claim of invention analysis by a group or single-subject experts. Sometimes the technological examinations and the patent lawyers’ opinions are also taken into considerations. But these processes include many disadvantages like consistency. Opinions might vary based on the understanding level, patented technology comparison, and business with a large current technological set.

Another vital method of deciding the weaknesses and strengths of the patent is citation analysis. A crucial backward or forward analysis can always predict the patent probability under the considerations for the litigations. The higher the number of backward citations, the higher will be the number of litigations. But suppose the backward citations include more self-citations. In that case, there can be a chance that the specific organization will fix a fence around the questionable patent that will provide the highest strength to it. Where a fewer number of backward citations are present than the forward ones, it will imply that the technology or the product is new and not an improvement of the current technology. Thus the chances of achieving a bigger market value are high.

But the above methods cannot predict the patent value individually or independently. There are three parameters for completing the evaluation of the patent: commercial, legal, and technical. The terms for technical evaluation is dependent on the manufacturing difficulty, degree of solution to a specific problem, importance of business, designing difficulty, and a total number of existing alternative solutions. Some of the legal parameters that are associated with it are infringement purpose detection, invalidity patent document chances, market or commercial value, and the size of the market that you will serve. Nowadays, different automated processes are present to decide the assessment of the patent. Most of the methods are dependent on the three parameters mentioned above. Logically, the method that can simulate more basic parameters of the derived terms can predict more approximation.

How Patent Research And Analysis Will Help In R&D Decisions?

Now let us take a quick look at how competitive landscape research assists in making final decisions for Research and Development:-

1. Evaluate The Market

Proper evaluation of the market is the most significant decision that will determine whether or not to jump into that specific market. In the market evaluation, organizations look into the total number of products or technologies already present in the market and how crowded the place is. Companies also evaluate if there is any white space analysis patent available or not. Organizations should also include the sellers and distributors’ database to know how and where they will be going to sell your product. Also, consider some other significant aspects like in which countries the technology will be successful, what is the future and existing potential of the product, the regulatory norms of the nation, and many more.

2. Conduct A Patent Landscape

Check out what is present in the patent market. There might still be some technologies that need to be patented, while others are already patented. Try to figure out some of the current, past, and future trends. There will be few chances of getting caught if you implement the past technologies. Ensure to keep an eye on future technologies and also the investments that are taking place in those technologies.

Check out if you can find any patent in the small area organization and if the product or technology is still present for licensing. You can check out the merger and acquisition of that enterprise. Doing this research on those companies might reduce the Research and development costs of that organization. Also, examine how the major competitors in the market carry out the advancements in technological areas. Are they generating any revenues or still implementing the old technologies? Have they swiftly switched to the new technologies? Also, check out if any new competitors are planning to come into this market or not.

3. Search The White Spaces And Evaluate Their Costs And Opportunities

Check out how crowded the patent landscape is. How many competitors are already present with how much total number of patents? A larger number of patents will enhance the chances of having a higher number of patent lawsuits with time. Conduct a thorough Freedom to operate search before introducing the product, design, or technology to avoid this risk. You can figure out where the patent is less and how many white spaces are available through proper patent categorization. But keep in mind that the presence of white spaces does not mean that the product will sell. You also figure out the market potential of that specific white space.

Also, check out the SWOT of the patent landscape that will determine which social or environmental factors can affect sturdy advancement in your particular technology. Also, calculate the costs and efforts of the R&D team.

Final Thoughts

Though the automated patent research has numerous advantages, the patents’ significant history under examination might terminate any danger of hidden litigations. Thus it is always better to seek the help of a professional patent analytics company to accomplish this task. So from the perspective of demand and supply, a low-value substantial patent might come up with a gold mine for the inventor in the future.

Ways To Make Patent Validation Or Invalidation Search More Effective

2020-09-25T09:56:37.219Z

Patent validity search is a vital task for the patent-holding companies or the inventors who are suffering from the infringement charges against competitive third parties or patent holders. Usually, patent invalidation is applied to invalidate existing patents to recover the existing publications and patents' invalid claims or facts. The implementation of a validity search is vital in securing the proper rights while battling the war of patent claims with another person or a company. The patent validity/ invalidity search offers some benefits like:

• It determines if a patent can withstand an in court litigation
• Determines how useful a patent can be for licensing the negotiations for those desiring or holding the manufactured invention or product when another owner has claimed the patent
• Offers in-depth detail analysis of the patent art search to prove its validity and invalidity
• Removes all the wasteful redundant searches
• A better understanding of the cost-effective approach for protecting and building IP
• Offer the manufacturing efficiencies and design of the superior processes and products
• Decrease the infringing risk of the third party patents
• Market, develop, and design patented products
• Helps to make faster and better-informed decisions

Patent validity/invalidity searches are the most extensively used searching process undertaken by intellectual properties. For instance, a company might continue to search for the patent records comprising a prior art until there is some discovery of details that can invalidate the competitors' patent. A patent search can be quite intensive or extensive. Thus, all the results mentioned above can be possible only through a comprehensive patent invalidation search using the USPTO filing date as a normal standard filter.

Strategies For The Patent Validation/Invalidation Search

Below are some of the most popular strategies for creating proofreading of patent validation or invalidation searches.

Theory Of Independent Assortment

Two or more individuals should carry out the prior art search separately and at the same time. Since different human beings possess different multi-dimensional creative thinking. It will not be easy for a researcher to cover all the similar claims of the specific privilege simultaneously. For the search's last report, the user merges all the independent results and sort out the best results from it.

Different Combinations Of Accuracy And Precision

If you are searching for a single claim prior art, then accuracy and precision should be the highest in the self-created key phrases. If the inventor includes any other combination of the accuracy and precision in the self keywords, then the chances of errors in the results will enhance. For more than one key phrase, the keyword precision should be low, and the accuracy should be high. The inventor requires concentrating on the various areas or claims of that specific discovery with some exhaustiveness.

Other Significant Strategies

Create some suitable orders or categories of the nearly relatable claims or patents according to the extent of the similarity with the concerned patent, technology, or design. The inventor also needs to enhance the systematic background patent invalidity search of the expired as well as active patents from all the relatable databases, including both non-patent and patent literature. All the vital factors like priority date, terrain information of a specific patent, the inventor should always keep in mind about the particularity of the concerned drawing or claim during the prior art search.

When the inventor handles a patent invalidation case, the time consumed should be predicted more value in the prior art search. These creative methods are beneficial to make the patent invalidity/validity search better and effective for proofreading the final reports. Always remember to implement advanced resources and better techniques for the prior art search.

Restriction Of Date

Before filing for a date of the patent in the PTBI, the inventor can impose a restriction of the date on the search accordingly. Sometimes one or more than one patent claim has a priority date later. In these cases, the date restriction shall be before the claim priority date.

How To Hire A Company For A Patent Validation And Invalidation Searches

Finding an ideal company for the invalidity or validity search is essential for a knowledgeable, professional, and full proofreading company. They entail searches through innumerable claims dealing with highly technical databases on particular subjects that need industry-oriented expertise.

The dissolution of the legal rights of a particular patent or technology depends on these searches. Thus handing over these duties to an incompetent firm will result in the loss in profits or business failure over time. Thus it is always necessary to employ the brightest, best, and most rigorous company when conducting a patent search. In this section, we will share the most important criteria to look for while searching for the best company for performing the patent invalidity/validity searches.

• The company should offer a dedicated professional to work on the validity search until the results exhaust
• The level of investigation (the USA or foreign patents) offered by the company
• The reputation and credibility of the firm in the patent search
• Negative comments about the previous clients online
• Performance of the company, best price, and the guarantee
• The technical expertise of the firm in the search field
• Experience in the prior art search for sectors like nanotechnology, geothermal energy, biofuel development, nutritional supplement, and many more
• The type of deliverables provided by the company in the report of the validity/invalidity searches
• Use of classified keywords and identified documents

Final Thoughts

Typically, legal counsel and the IP attorney believe the threat of patent searching outweighs the advantages of the R&D, corporate development, marketing personnel that push toward discovering publicly available information to make more informed decisions. Patent Validation/invalidation searches are a trade-off between the reward and risk that an inventing company or an individual should weigh accordingly.