Patentability Search

Huge investments go into a development of new ideas and products. Therefore, when a company spends large amount of time and money in research and development activities, it becomes essential to analyze the novelty and scope of inventions, prior to filing a patent. A Novelty Search or Patentability Search is conducted in the early stages of Research & Development. The search is conducted when an inventor is interested in applying for a patent, and wants to determine whether a similar or identical invention already exists. The main aspects that are targeted in a patent search are to provide opinions on Novelty/Uniqueness, Inventive Step and Industrial Applicability of the invention. Our Practices Our patentability search report helps you to ascertain the novel aspect of the invention. We conduct exhaustive prior art searches in patent databases and provide detailed patentability analysis. We also identify features of the invention that are unique and novel. The search strategy includes various strategies such as keyword based searching, classification based searching (such as CPC, IPC, USC, FI, F-term), Assignee based searching, inventor based searching, and citation based searching. We have access to industry’s leading patent and non-patent databases. The patent databases include Thomson Innovation, Orbit (from QuestelTM), Google Patents, Espacenet, or USPTO. The other national and non-patent databases such as IP.com, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, CiteSeer, ACM Library, Wiley’s Library, etc.

State of Art Search

A State of Art search is performed to assess the current trend in a specific domain. The State of the art search helps you to map latest development in the specific technology, and make strategic business decisions. Typically, the State of Art search is performed to gather up-to-date information about current scenario/development in a specific technical field, by the companies or inventors.

Knock Out Search

To quickly knock out the inventions which are not novel. The Knock-Out Search is a fast and a low cost option. Four-to-five hours Knock-Out Searches help you quickly make a topline determination of the novelty of an invention. Such searches are conducted prior to making an investment in drafting a patent. Our Best Practices Firstly, send us the technical details of the invention in a predefined disclosure format, and a prior art search is conducted using various patent and non-patent databases. We have extensive experience in performing knock out searches by identifying prior art references which target the novelty aspect of the invention. Our report formats are extremely structured, easy to understand, and tailored as per your requirements. Our Best Practices We perform State of Art Searches on various databases including patent and non-patent databases. We have extensive experience in performing State of Art searches. We prepare an exhaustive search report including details of applicants, inventors, filing date, publication date, assignees, grant date etc. Our report formats are extremely structured, easy to understand, and tailored as per your requirements.

Patent Invalidation Searches

Patent invalidity/validity searches are conducted to either validate the claims made by a patent or to invalidate one or more claims of a competitor’s patent. Patent invalidation search is the first step taken by a company when faced with a patent infringement lawsuit. Validity searches are conducted to check the strength of a granted patent while exploring the available licensing options. The validity searches are performed after the grant of a patent to ensure that the granted patent is valid and enforceable. On the other hand, invalidity searches are conducted by a defendant to invalidate a patent by conducting prior art search. Key objective The key objective of the validity and invalidity search is to find out prior art that was likely missed by the patent examiner during the prosecution stage, which may potentially question the novelty or non-obviousness of the reference. An invalidity/validity search involves conducting a thorough patent and non-patent literature search to identify prior art references before the earliest filing date of the patent. Our Best Practices We perform exhaustive prior art search in patent and non-patent databases. The search strategy includes various strategies such as keyword based searching, classification based searching (such as CPC, IPC, USC, FI, F-term), Assignee based searching, inventor based searching, and citation based searching . We use various patent and non-patent databases for the search. The patent databases include Thomson Innovation, Orbit (from QuestelTM), Google Patents, Espacenet, or USPTO. The other national and non-patent databases such as IP.com, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, CiteSeer, ACM Library, Wiley’s Library, etc. Our report includes details of prior arts with their relevant mapping. Accurately identifying the novel aspect of the patent based on specifications and file rapper analysis Validating the prior art as per the 35 USC laws (102/103) and EPC laws (Articles 54 and 56)

Chemical Structure Search

Chemical Structure search is performed to search novelty of molecular structures that cannot be identified by other approaches. The idea of performing the chemical structure search is: Identifies the names of chemical compounds in patent texts; Identifies their structure from embedded drawings in patent texts. The chemical structure search works only on developed formulas. Our Best Practices We perform exhaustive search on searching tools such as Scientific Technical Networks (STN), Patentscope and eMolecules. We prepare exhaustive search reports. Our report formats are extremely structured, easy to understand, and tailored as per your requirements.

Freedom to Operate/Clearance Search

Freedom-to-Operate (FTO) searches are performed before launching a product or service in the market. In order to avoid any risk of infringement and litigation, the organization should proactively perform a FTO search to identify any valid patents/patent applications that could potentially block the commercialization of your product or process. The FTO search is restricted to a particular jurisdiction. The results of the FTO search can be used to modify the considered product/process in light of relevant patents.

Our Best Practices Examine active patents and pending published patent applications worldwide or within a region where you’re considering operational or marketing activities. An FTO search involves claim specific search to locate claims that read on to the features of the product or service to be launched in the market. We
provide exhaustive search report including legal status of the patents i.e., whether active or dead. We perform FTO search on a variety of technology domains including Computer Science and Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals and Life
Sciences domain.