Posts Tagged: "patent searches"

About a month ago, Steve Brachmann authored an article concerned with a brief given to Capitol Hill staff by Professors Frakes and Wasserman. The article highlighted fundamental, as well as practical, problems with Professors Frakes’ and Wasserman’s proposal (i.e. doubling the number of patent examiners as a means to reduce the number of invalid patents and thereby prevent societal harms) and how it could be detrimental to the U.S. patent system. The IPWatchdog article points to several issues with Frakes’ and Wasserman’s proposal, but does not discuss other approaches or options, such as using artificial intelligence tools to improve the patent application review process—an option that USPTO Commissioner for Patents Drew Hirshfeld said in a recent Senate IP Subcommittee hearing that the Office is actively pursuing. According to PWC, 72% of executives testify that AI improves internal operations while freeing up workers to perform more creative and meaningful tasks. In fact, while some might fear that “robots” will take human jobs, technological innovation has been proven to generate more jobs than it takes, while automating tasks, like patent search.

Intellectual property probably isn’t high on the to-do list for most new nonprofits and business start-ups. There’s plenty enough to do with setting up an organization, paying bills, and serving customers and clients. However, intellectual property is important and shouldn’t be overlooked. Companies and organizations that don’t protect their IP can risk losing hard-earned work and concepts. Also, companies can risk liability if they violate the IP rights of others, even unknowingly or by accident. Patents provide inventors the right to exclude others from using the technologies covered by the patent for a limited time.  In exchange for exclusivity, inventors must disclose how to make and use the invention.  An inventor can apply for a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), as well as other intellectual property offices around the world.

Patents are expensive to obtain. The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of money if there are easy to find references a US patent search could locate… If you hire a professional patent search firm you may want to also consider adding an international patent search. Some search firms may already include an international patent search in the price, or at least a search of certain foreign databases. While US patent searches are essential, international patent searches are preferable if you can afford the extra cost.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a plot point in futuristic sci-fi novels and films. In many aspects of our lives, machines are increasingly performing tasks previously handled by human intelligence. The current and potential applications of AI span a breadth of industries… Whether it’s patent search, online advertising or aviation, AI helps by acting as a multiplier for human function and creativity. As humans continue to innovate, producing an overwhelming amount of work which translates into an incredible amount of data, AI will be the key to decoding and uncovering necessary information.

Patent searches are excellent learning tools because they give you an opportunity to discover which aspects of your invention are most likely to contribute to patentability, thereby allowing the description in any filed patent application to focus on those aspects most likely to contribute to patentability. Without a patent search you would just be describing all the various aspects of your invention as if they are equally important, which we know won’t be the case… Not only do patent searches allow for focus to be placed on what is different and most likely patentable, but if knock-out prior art is found then the expensive a patent application has been saved.

This page and website contain contain detailed information to help inventors on the road from invention to patent… Below are a sampling of inventor help links to specific patent and invention related information throughout our website. As you read these articles you will invariably come across links to other articles of interest, which you can and really should read. While I believe inventors should take the time to read all of the pages throughout IPWatchdog.com, I have gone through the IPWatchdog.com archives and created several “reading assignments,” which will hopefully make the task of figuring out where to start more manageable, and which will help get you started. I recommend you do them in this order (i.e., starting with Reading Assignment 1), but if you find something that you just need to know then by all means jump ahead. You can also visit our Inventor Education Archive as well.

The patent process can be overwhelming and quite costly for an inventor who wishes to secure patent protection on their invention. But there are certain steps of the process that should not be neglected because of financial constraints, otherwise your efforts could actually be counterproductive and work against you in the end… In other words, even if you qualify as a micro entity, which entitles you to pay 25% of the regular USPTO fees, the fees due just to the federal government will more than eat up a $600 budget and that is if you represent yourself, which can be quite risky.

Chinese patents and patent applications are citable as prior art in most Western countries if they meet the usual criteria regarding publication dates of the cited patent and filing or priority dates of the examined patent. They always have been. However, recent developments have made them more problematic for Western country applicants, especially for independent inventors and small businesses… While in the past an inventor may have decided that it was not worth getting a patent, and many inventions have been forgotten in this manner, there is a large number of people in China who are now encouraged to file patents applications and utility model applications even for the simplest of invention. What we can do as patent agents and attorneys, is to start searching for Chinese documents when doing prior art searches. This may result in bad news for inventors who receive negative patentability reports, but at least they will not spend a lot of money only to have their patent application rejected later.

Recently, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Michelle Lee talked about releasing its APIs for patent data into the wild. What does this really mean? “The release of open APIs will be a huge boon for the IP and patent industries as it will draw on the crowd for building tools to improve the patent process,” says Kurt Collins, director of technology evangelism and partnerships, Buillt.io, a technology provider that enables organizations to create, integrate and scale applications. But the results of how open-source programmers will build these tools remain an open question.

Would you climb Everest without an expert guide? You shouldn’t navigate the global IP landscape without one either. The global intellectual property terrain is becoming increasingly complex. Across the world, the quantity of patent applications has almost doubled since 2000 (source: WIPO), and the largest single contributor, China, reported over 300,000 patents granted in the chemistry sector in 2015 alone, a 30% increase from the year before (source: STN®, database: CAplus?, accessed 2/15/2016). Consequently, having a patent search professional who can work with your team is more important than ever. Being able to efficiently and expertly research the IP considerations that impact key business decisions can you save time and money, while also providing you with invaluable topical and global insight.

While surveying the market is a wise first step, frequently there are patents lurking that have simply not been used to develop commercial products. This can be for a variety of reasons, and makes patent searches critically important. One common reason a patent may exist but the product may not be on the market is because the previous inventor was simply unsuccessful in taking the patent to the market. This can happen for a variety of reasons. Maybe the product was ahead of its time, maybe the inventor ran out of funds and the project became abandoned, perhaps the inventor did not have the right connections or stamina necessary to see the project to conclusion. Whatever the case may be, there can be a variety of reasons why a patent has been applied for or issued on an invention that never made it to the market.

According to WIPO data, USPTO, EPO and KIPO are major ISAs for U.S. applicants; about 94% of intentional searches have been done by these three patent offices. U.S. applicants may consider the quality of search reports and cost of search fees as the most important factors in selecting an ISA. Search fees vary by ISA, for example, EPO’s rate is relatively high $2,125, USPTO’s rate is $2,080, and KIPO is well known to provide high quality earches with a relevantly competitive cost at $1,219.

For many innovations, in addition to doing a traditional patent search it will be of the utmost importance to search European and east Asian literature, particularly literature from Japan or Korea. The patents issued or published by the USPTO, EPO, KIPO, JPO and SIPO cover more than 90% of the world’s patent documents. But when a particularly lucrative innovation is at stake going beyond the patents can be a worthwhile investment.

Properly used, a qualified search can be one of the most cost-effective and valuable tools a company can have to not only capture and create innovation, but also to avoid being sued for infringement. This dual purpose for a search is important to understand. A novelty search is intended to determine whether a patent can likely be obtained, but sometimes it will be quite useful to undertake a more comprehensive analysis of the search results to determine whether moving forward might result in a charge of patent infringement. In order to maximize the value of a company’s portfolio it is critical for business managers to understand the of importance of a search— including what kinds of searches are available, why to consider search before filing patent application, when to get searches, who should conduct and review search, and how to strategically use search result.