Invalidation Search

(In)validation

Patent Invalidation search is also known as Opposition Study or Patent Validity Study. This is often done to argue with the PTO authorities that the claim(s) of the Patent to be Invalidated (PTBI) at the time of filing was not novel or obvious.

The objective of the Patent Invalidation search is to revoke an already registered/ granted patent claim(s) or a pre-grant opposition of a published patent application claim(s) that were missed by the patent examiner during the prosecution stage, which may potentially question the novelty or non-obviousness of the reference. An invalidity search involves a thorough patent and non-patent literature search to identify the prior art references predating the earliest filing of the patent.

We perform exhaustive prior art searches in subscribed databases which provide us access to the 100+ jurisdictions worldwide:

Various Patent databases like Orbit (from QuestelTM), Patseer, Total patents (from LexisNexisTM), Thomson Innovations, Google Patents, Espacenet, USPTO and other regional patent databases.

Non patent databases such as IP.com, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, CiteSeer, ACM Library, Wiley’s Library, etc.

Our comprehensive search strategy includes keywords-based searching, patent classification based searching such as CPC, IPC, USC, FI, F-Terms (for Japanese patents) based searching, assignee and inventors-based searching, citation search/spider searching and semantic search.

Process
Moreover

Our shortcoming looks help you when the stakes are most noteworthy

Steps involved in our approach for performing an invalidation search:

Identifying target claims and specific limitations of interest, critical date, and other key parameters to develop a precise search strategy based on an in-depth scoping discussion.

Searching electronic and manual data sources for non-patent technical literature, including non-traditional resources such as product literature (manuals and repair guides), and industry-standard documents, and hard-copy collections at libraries around the world.

End product:

The invalidity search report includes the details of potential prior art literature (along with bibliographic details) and mapping of claims to the relevant text of the prior art literature/references. We also provide highlighted PDFs of the references shortlisted.

Differentiator

Our investigation on the prosecution loopholes helps our clients to:

• Support the most grounded contention for negating a patent when you are the respondent in an encroachment claim.
• Our searchers routinely use different languages- and technology-specific databases to provide the best possible support for your litigation or enforcement efforts.

Case Study: Combinational Prior Art

Being in a patent industry, everyone loves a strong 102-type prior art reference in case of invalidation. But sometimes even after giving all one’s got for the searching; we are somehow not able to find the 102-type prior art. What should one do in that case?

Well, in most of the cases, the results identified usually lack a few features or elements of the claim. This is the time when a combination-art or 103-type references come into play and serve their purpose. We know that one is always skeptical of sending 103-type prior art to their client. But when you look at the matter with a microscopic lens, you will focus on the intricacies of the claim elements and can make the combination-artwork equally relevant as the 102-type read more…..

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