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In September 2024, the patent transaction landscape saw over 750 deals, with consumer products dominating the sales, closely followed by telecommunications and biotechnology. This article [...]

In early 2021, GreyB identified one of IBM’s drone patents, US10040551B2, as a prime asset for food delivery companies. Eight months later, DoorDash acquired this patent to strengthen its [...]

In 2022, over three million patent applications were filed worldwide. This rise brings a challenging question: How do you sift through the massive sea of patent data to find exactly what you [...]

Weak invalidity contentions delay proceedings and increase costs, adding unnecessary stress to a high-stakes situation. Worst of all, it turns even the winning cases into losing battles. Minor [...]

IBM has shaped decentralized solutions and digital assets with nearly 1,450 active blockchain patents as of 2023. But the recent decline in its patent filings in the past few years raises [...]

In 2022, over 3.4 million patent applications were filed globally, with a substantial portion published each year. This huge data makes it all the more difficult to perform efficient patent [...]

Creating a strategy for patent acquisition often means finding patents that are not only strategically aligned but also genuinely available for purchase. It’s a common frustration when a [...]

In recent years, Apple has found itself on the losing end of several patent infringement cases. In 2019, an ITC ruling in favor of Qualcomm could have blocked iPhone sales. It was a close call, [...]

Over the past decade, Netflix has experienced a change in the type of patent litigation it faces. It was predominantly litigated by Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs), but recently, there has been a [...]

The development of VVC and next-generation video codecs focuses on two key issues: enhancing bitrate efficiency and reducing device dependency. By improving bitrate efficiency, these new codecs [...]

The finalization of WiFi 6 standards marked a significant shift in wireless technology, leading to increased adoption in user-end devices. As we approach the anticipated finalization of WiFi 7 by [...]

After over a decade out of the hard disk drive (HDD) market, Samsung’s recent patent acquisitions are drawing attention and sparking curiosity about the company’s future direction. [...]

The finalization of WiFi 6 standards increased user-end device adoption, a trend expected to repeat with WiFi 7, which is anticipated to be finalized by the end of 2024. As market adoption [...]

Kodak, once a giant in the photography industry, spent millions annually on patent maintenance fees even as their revenue dwindled. Many of these patents were no longer aligned with their [...]

With the rise of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) in India and the growing interest of Chinese companies in this market, the question looms: “Could India be the next patent hub for Chinese [...]

The integration of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the 802.11 Task Group for a comprehensive study marks a significant step towards advancing next-generation wireless [...]

Dow Chemical Co. (Dow) sued Nova Chemicals Corp. (Nova) for patent infringement in 2010, arguing that Nova’s polyethylene plastic products infringed Dow’s patent.  Dow Chemical won its case [...]

Blockchain has been the subject of numerous patent applications over the past decade. However, compared to other technologies, the number of issued blockchain patents is modest due to the lengthy [...]

A patent landscape analysis involves a comprehensive review of the patents in a specific technological field. This analysis helps companies identify technology trends, potential partners or [...]

With the rise in patent filings and the rapid development of industry standards like 3GPP, ITU-T, and IEEE, the number of Standard Essential Patent (SEP) declarations has surged. This increase [...]

Relying solely on market research and news headlines for competitive analysis will put you at a disadvantage. By the time your competitors make headlines, their strategies are already in [...]

A common challenge in creating a patent licensing and monetization strategy is establishing a balance between patent protection and generating significant revenue. Many companies struggle to [...]

The WiFi-7 standard, 802.11be, is almost finalized and will be completed by late 2024. This has prompted early product launches, showcasing the intense competition in the market. This scenario [...]

While 5G is still being developed and implemented, the 3GPP has already initiated discussions on 6G technology. Given the transformative impact of 5G across various industries, 6G innovation will [...]

The Richardson Oliver Patent Market Report 2023 found that patents with documented evidence of use can command significantly higher prices. These premiums range from a staggering 32% to a [...]

Unlike traditional inventions with clear descriptions, AI patents, especially those with complex neural networks, are difficult to understand. Additionally, the lack of detailed explanations in [...]

One key takeaway from Kent Richardson, Michael Costa, and Erik Oliver’s Patent Brokered Market Report 2023 is that buyers held the upper hand in 2023. This trend is expected to continue in [...]

The pharmaceutical industry is known for its high-stakes drug patent infringement cases. Recently, several industry leaders, such as AbbVie, Bayer, and Cipla, have been involved in high-stakes [...]

Acquiring highly valuable patents presents a significant opportunity to strengthen your patent portfolio and secure a competitive edge. However, what if, after acquiring the supposedly “gem [...]

Securing a ruling in your favor in an infringement case is a win, but translating that into a fair financial recovery is the real challenge.  This scenario is all too common. You’ve built a [...]

Technical standards, evolving technologies, and scattered patent declarations complicate the process of determining standard essential patents (SEPs). This is further complicated by the need for [...]

Online resources such as product manuals and company websites are a good starting point for patent infringement analysis. However, these sources can often be inconclusive, making it difficult to [...]

Major players like ZTE, Xiaomi, Zyxel, Sagemcom, Maxlinear, TP-Link, Buffalo, Gemtek, and a few others have already begun marketing their Wi-Fi 7 routers, following the certifications received [...]

Like every other industry, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also transformed intellectual property (IP). With reduced human effort, patent experts can refine how they read, analyze, and leverage [...]

IP Licensing is no longer a unique practice in dynamic technology domains. However, the key to success lies in finding the smartest and most creative strategy for analyzing infringement, which [...]

Ironburg Inventions, known for its SCUF controllers, claimed that Valve’s Steam Controller infringed on its patents. Specifically, the patents in question were related to the back paddle [...]

Identifying Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) is a resource-intensive task, especially when dealing with a large patent portfolio. In this process, manual analysis is the preferred method, but [...]

Streaming crystal-clear 8K content on a phone without buffering, even on unreliable internet, is no longer a far-fetched thought. This seemingly magical experience relies heavily on the intricate [...]

In the eight months since its introduction, the Unitary Patent System has initiated a significant transformation in the field of patent law within the European Union. This article aims to offer [...]

Even with the customers’ growing need for dairy-free products, sales of most plant-based products have sharply declined in the past year. One of the major reasons consumers reject the use [...]

The arthritis treatment industry is characterized by its intense competitiveness, driving companies to invest significantly in research and development to secure leading arthritis drug patents. [...]

Acquiring multiple patents over time will result in a portfolio that may or may not align with a company’s objectives, values, and goals. Therefore, to ensure a stronger and more relevant [...]

The standard approach to prove product overlap during patent infringement analysis involves researching online resources such as product manuals, datasheets, and FAQs. However, online literature [...]

AI (Artificial Intelligence) has transformed intellectual property (IP) by reducing human effort and enabling patent experts to refine how they discover, analyze, and leverage intellectual [...]

It is not uncommon for companies to engage in aggressive patent pruning due to budgetary constraints. However, what if one could analyze the licensing potential of these patents before the patent [...]

The unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International case spiked patent rejections by 31%, leaving innovators and their backers in limbo. That single [...]

When Nick, a legal counsel representing a major Non-Practicing Entity (NPE) in the United States, approached us, his goal was to acquire 200 patents from a portfolio of 1000 within a strict [...]

Given the competitive nature of the pharmaceutical domain, the expiration of drug patents presents significant opportunities, particularly for companies specializing in generic medications.  [...]

While Wi-Fi 6 has reshaped the connectivity landscape, the arrival of Wi-Fi 7 presents both a challenge and an opportunity for telecom players. Poised to power everything from immersive AR/VR [...]

The Traditional process to identify Standard Essential Patent (SEP) is time-consuming and resource-intensive, especially when dealing with large patent sets. While manual analysis cannot be [...]

Generally, patents are filed with a particular standard in mind. Take, for instance, a scenario where researchers filed a patent related to a concept in 5G technology. The typical route for [...]

The strategic patent acquisition has proven to be a game-changing move for those seeking to safeguard their innovations, enhance their market standing, and potentially increase revenue. [...]

On October 13th, 2023, Microsoft officially closed its acquisition of video game developer Activision Blizzard King, nearly 21 months after announcing it. Here are some highlights of this deal [...]

Recent years have seen a paradigm shift in patent litigation cases. 61% of the patent infringement lawsuits since 2020 were backed up by litigation funding companies. A further 30% of patent [...]

In September, Lenovo Group paid a hefty $140 million in a SEPs infringement lawsuit by InterDigital. In the same month, Xiaomi and Oppo were sued by Panasonic over 4G patent infringement, adding [...]

In a world where ChatGPT, the cutting-edge AI language model by OpenAI, has rapidly transformed industries, the intellectual property (IP) sector is no exception. Its remarkable ability to [...]

Key Insights Compared to its counterparts, China holds a 3x lead in patent collaboration. With a key focus on accessing technology. Japan holds the second spot on this list, with most of the [...]

Toyota has made a significant claim about a “technological breakthrough” that could enable the Japanese automaker to halve solid-state batteries (SSB)’ size, weight, and production cost. [...]

Patent data, especially patent claims, can help with various tasks, such as assessing the market, analyzing competitors, identifying innovative trends, evaluating risks, and devising market-entry [...]

During invalidation searches, I often stumble upon 102 prior art from my surroundings. It might fascinate you how I discover them even when I’m not looking for them consciously. However, [...]

This is the story of a project that challenged me to invalidate a patent by one of the pioneers in the field of next-gen gene sequencing with over two decades of research under his belt.  It [...]

If patents are your bread and butter, you know as much as I do that a thorough patent portfolio analysis is critical before deciding to buy them. However, the situation gets complicated by [...]

In 2020, the FDA approved loteprednol etabonate ophthalmic suspension 0.25% (Eysuvis, Kala Pharmaceuticals Inc.) for treating dry eye disease. As one of the most common ocular surface disorders, [...]

This year, Colibri Heart Valve, a medical device start-up, went into a legal battle against the industry giant Medtronic CoreValve. This case not only earned its place among the top US patent [...]

Mergers and acquisitions have been a core business strategy for companies across almost all industries. A key reason for M&A deals today is the need to harness cutting-edge technologies [...]

While working with various cases of prior art searches, our grit and investigative approach have helped us sail the boat every time. These skills were not developed overnight; each case has [...]

You are considering investing millions of dollars in purchasing a patent portfolio. While this decision offers an attractive opportunity to open doors to novel technological horizons and [...]

The ecosystem of a patent and its technology are critical factors in conducting a prior art search and even selecting the appropriate researcher for your case. Moreover, in one of our blogs, we [...]

During the second quarter of 2023, there was a 7% increase in patent applications for immuno-oncology compared to the previous quarter, indicating a dynamic transformation in the oncology [...]

Securing a patent is only the beginning of protecting your innovative ideas. What follows is the need to ensure the continued protection of your innovations in maintaining a competitive edge in [...]

Location-Based Services (LBS) technology has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years, serving as a focal point for extensive research and development efforts to enhance mobile location [...]

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) often dominate headlines, but the role of intellectual property (IP) though crucial, is often overlooked. IP can influence industry competition and innovation, [...]

Prior-art search is a challenging process in itself. While it is possible to identify relevant prior art based on the claimed numerical value for well-known quantities like thicknesses, volumes, [...]

It is a no-brainer that an effective patent prior art search begins with creating effective search strings. However, over the years, we’ve analyzed some of the most common mistakes researchers [...]

Navigating the vast landscape of the prior art search is overwhelming, and there is always the risk of missing crucial prior art references. Partnering with the right research firm can make or [...]

“Searching prior art is not a process, it is an art.” In my 6 years of experience, I have been a part of ~250 patent invalidation processes. If it has taught me anything, it is that there are [...]

Jon, a high-ranking executive of a tech firm, recently reached out to us with a request to find valuable Wi-Fi6 SEPs his company should buy. As soon as we ended the kick-off call, we opened [...]

Infringement analysis requires more than just being well-informed. While traditional methods may serve as a helpful starting point, they are often inadequate, given how time-sensitive patent [...]

Have you ever considered how AI might play a role in uncovering patent landscapes, pinpointing pivotal patents, or discovering crucial prior art? The world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is [...]

In the realm of innovation and technological advancement, patents often take center stage as valuable sources of information. However, even the most comprehensive patent databases can sometimes [...]

As a seasoned innovator or senior patent counsel, you likely recognize that selling patents can be a swift avenue to generate income. However, it’s easy to fall into the tempting belief [...]

As analysts, we often encounter a situation where a patent’s claims contain certain elements that appear to be designed as decoys. Their inclusion is intended to distract attention from [...]

The often-overlooked aspect of traditional startup scouting is the relationship between startups and financial institutions, particularly manifested through patent transactions. However, this [...]

Standard essential patents (SEPs) facilitate technical coordination through standard-setting organizations. However, there are instances where the status of a declared SEP being truly essential [...]

The IP world is ever-evolving. As a result, it becomes difficult to keep track of the same. But, it is essential for any individual or company to be educated about IP so as to protect and benefit [...]

European Patent (EP) has been a common patent valid across 39 contracting member states (27 EU countries and 12 other European countries). However, the downside of it has been that the [...]

The choice of patent databases highly depends on the motive beneath it, or in other words, the type of patent search involved. For instance, for a prior art search that is for current litigation, [...]

I won’t pretend that reading patents is the most thrilling activity in the world. As a user experience designer at a patent research firm, I’ve spent more time than I care to admit [...]

While one cannot deny NPEs’ role in innovation protection, heavy litigation from them does create uncertainties and turmoil for companies. Do you remember when 5G networking became the talk [...]

As the chip shortage lingers upon the world, TeleGrey, one of our clients from the telecommunications industry, approached us with a plan to get into chip development to become self-reliant. Just [...]

As innovation in self-driving technology is picking up the pace, acquiring the right patents can be crucial for IP managers to ensure their company stays ahead of the competition. But it isn’t as [...]

Virtual Reality (VR) technology rapidly transforms how we experience the world, from immersive gaming to advanced training simulations. However, as with any burgeoning field, legal battles over [...]

In 2019, OnePlus Technology faced a legal battle when EVS codec tech LLC & Saint Lawrence Communications- two U.S. NPEs sued this Chinese mobile giant for infringing on the patents related to [...]

Samuel (a Patent Attorney at a leading law firm in the USA) was exploring DatingArc (a famous dating app) as a potential infringer on one of his client’s patents. Despite his best efforts, he [...]

As an IP litigator, you know well how a claim chart can make or break the case for you. The effectiveness of a patent infringement search is nullified if the findings cannot be conveyed in the [...]

Conducting innumerable validity searches led us to realize that non-patent literature search databases often give us valuable leads to find the exact prior art. But, the trick with successful [...]

Bell Semiconductor, an entity of Hilco Global, has thousands of patents in the semiconductor domain. However, despite the connotations, it is a category 2 Non-Practicing Entity and doesn’t seem [...]

Analyzing your patent portfolio and potentially selling your patents to interested buyers can be a smart business move. And you already know that. Right? Therefore, to help guide you in this [...]

Irrespective of the company’s size, finding an alternative funding source can be challenging. While startups/smaller companies may struggle to secure funding for R&D or to support their [...]

“I’m literally asking for today 😉 we need to get these done by tomorrow morning US time. So it’s only if you have a person with the flexibility to work on this today, your time, rather than [...]

Patent infringement search cases can become complex and challenging to navigate when product literature is to be extracted from thousands of NPL sources. What if, while checking every single [...]

“First of all, it is very expensive litigation, and it is fairly risky on the plaintiff’s side, so the risk transferred to a funder is very appealing. You often have, not always, but a David [...]

Whether you’re a seasoned patent expert or just starting to dive into the field, you already know how important non-patent literature (NPL) search is when invalidating a patent. However, a [...]

Imagine an intellectual property (IP) professional using the same method to search for prior art for years. One day, a colleague suggests trying a new database that promises to streamline the [...]

Alexa, can Amazon protect itself against the State Farm lawsuit? … While Alexa might not have the answer to this, we sure do. Stay tuned till the end, and you will too. Many dream of [...]

Imagine you’re Mike, the IP Counsel of a leading technology manufacturing company. With the economy slowly slipping into a recession, you must ensure that your company doesn’t sink. This means [...]

In just a few decades, social media, as we know it, has influenced our everyday life. Over 4.5 billion people use social media daily. More than 300 million photos are uploaded daily on Facebook. [...]

Last year, we observed the operating companies picking up with respect to patent buying. But this isn’t true for all aspects of the market. So the question remains, “Has 2021 brokered [...]

Patents aim to add value to a company through different forms of monetization, and when the size of the patent portfolio increases, it becomes all the more important to identify the top-line [...]

  According to a Forbes report, out of the 2.1 million active US patents, hardly 5% have reached the market. About 90% of the patents fail to be commercialized or find angel investors or [...]

When humans, in general, come across a problem, our first instinct is to solve it ourselves. This boosts our confidence to prove to others that we are capable and skilled enough. While there [...]

There is a lot of buzz about the upcoming global recession. If we see history, patent licensing and litigation flourish during this time. But, it is pretty obvious that if you’re filing patents, [...]

“The decision of acquiring patents is some work! Starting from getting hold of a certain bunch of patents to making strategies looking at the various aspects that could affect the acquisition. [...]

I faced a similar situation recently. Had I struck off this small company on my list, our client could have potentially lost millions of dollars.  So today, I am here to share some points [...]

Studying various infringement cases, I couldn’t help but notice that companies generally start preparing against litigations only after they are sued. For example, doing non-infringement checks, [...]

Once a patent is filed, it is out there in the open for everyone to see. However, many companies wish to keep their important inventions hidden. So at times, they do this by performing conscious [...]

Wanna be that person? Well, you are on the right track. Google just provided us with upgraded weapons, and through this article, I’ll be sharing seven of its best features. Another good news, we [...]

When I joined GreyB last year as part of the marketing team, my first week was dedicated to learning about the in-house tools and understanding what sets our tools apart. One tool which caught my [...]

If Drug research and development is your bread and butter, you must be familiar with the wonders of Stelara.  For the uninitiated, Stelara is the brand name of the drug Ustekinumab, which is [...]

“You don’t know the value of the best until you’ve experienced the worst,” I blurted out loud as I went through the journal of a paralegal, amazed at how his life took a turn for the best. While [...]

Our operational costs have been reduced by 50% and prosecution time is 30% faster, which has led to a 25% increase in profit. – Mike, one of our clients, filed over 20,000 (Information [...]

The patent prosecution process is a battle on its own, much akin to the patent owner and the examiner playing a game of chess. Each of them plays moves by not just reading the other one’s last [...]

GreyB researchers handle multiple projects and since we have teams that are expert in different technologies, we as a company get exposure to see the future from various angles. As an editor, I [...]

Have you ever heard of hiding in plain sight? How often do you skip the details because they look pretty obvious? But, a more important question, why am I asking these questions? It’s well [...]

“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.” -Duke Ellington For my team, this case was a chance to brainstorm the best strategies to monetize patents when there is no infringement. How did [...]

For a researcher, prior-art searching means following a set of patterns and ending with a bang-on result. Finding a bang-on result for every case is not easy. From the beginning of my career as a [...]

I’ve seen docketing systems missing lots of basic checks that can be programmed in a day. For instance, I’ve experienced IDS filing systems that do not check if cited references are in sync with [...]

“Corporate patent buyers have pulled back and NPEs have moved in with more buying (often with cash), accounting for almost 70% of patent sales as of last quarter. In fact, they are buying more [...]

While on a hunt for a killer prior art, even after putting in all your blood and sweat, it is not certain that you will hit right on it. One of the many reasons could be that the industry or,…

Have you ever spent a lot of time sifting through information that already exists within your organization? Has it ever happened that the internal knowledge of all the past projects got [...]

“… Intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience”, Einstein said. Ideas are just a mash-up of already existing information. And what if I tell you with that logic, [...]

This article is written by Andrew Schulman, Consulting Expert & Attorney at Law, and it appeared first on his LinkedIn profile. Claim charts (infringement contentions [ICs], invalidity [...]

Planning to launch a new product and concerned about the huge IP prevailing in the domain? Does the thought of accidentally Designing/producing an infringing product ever bother you? What if [...]

“More than 75% of SEP litigations involve 3GPP standards, including these days’ hot topic i.e., 5G standard and its predecessor i.e., 4G, 3G, and 2G.” – IPWatchdog The stakes in [...]

According to reports, it takes ~10 years and $2.6 Billion for a new drug to complete its journey from initial discovery to its market launch. Given the timeline and the resources at stake, you [...]

Have you ever faced a situation where you are trying to invalidate a formulation patent and end up not having even a single prior art disclosing the exact same proportions of ingredients? Despite [...]

As searchers, each of us has an array of tactics and strategies at our disposal. Implementing the right tactic at the right resource could open doors to the prior art that you thought might not [...]

Imagine this – You have a patent to invalidate. What are the possible search avenues you will explore to ensure a comprehensive search such that no prior art is missed? If you’re a [...]

In the practical world, circumstances are not always in our favor. Sometimes, indeed, we don’t have suitable weapons to fight the battle. On the contrary, the opponent’s counterattack is so [...]

Patent filing in the semiconductor industry has exploded in recent years as new technologies like the internet of things, machine learning, and artificial intelligence have rapidly expanded in [...]

Imagine this – You are a leading biopharmaceutical player whose R&D team has developed a novel product. Before launching the product, you want to make sure your product is not infringing on [...]

As a litigator, you love killer prior art, don’t you? A perfect Tier-I reference(s) would make life so easy and court proceedings bliss. But what if killer prior art does not exist?  The next [...]

I have been with GreyB for over two years now. I have worked on multiple cases, yet every new case brings with it the same enthusiasm and thrill – something I love about the IP industry. That is [...]

If you have been searching for a comprehensive guide on how to conduct a patent search, I would like to congratulate you because your search has just ended. This is your one-stop solution where [...]

Imagine this – A leading smartphone player comes to you with a litigation-grade search project for a smartphone-related patent. If the fact that this patent was in litigation does not sound [...]

There are a hundred different ways to perform a patent search – You can perform it on a commercial or a free patent database. You might choose a conventional way or go totally out of the league – [...]

“In 2020, there were 27 software-related patents on appeal for subject matter eligibility. The CAFC found four of the patents either partially or fully eligible under Section 101. It found 22 [...]

“Gamers are the most passionate people in the world and it’s painful when you make them unhappy”. Jack Tretton, President, and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America (2013) We have to agree [...]

Have you ever been lost in the ocean of cited references in a patent invalidation search?   Citation analysis, although a powerful strategy, is often limited to the second or third generation of [...]

Recently in March 2021, Intel Vs. VLSI made the news when the Texas court asked Intel to pay $2.18 billion to VLSI for infringing two of their patents. The amount was the second highest patent [...]

Has this ever happened to you during a litigation grade search that you found prior art in complaint documents? Yes, those very documents which in a previous infringement lawsuit was used to [...]

So, you’re here, looking for patent brokers. You probably want to sell your patents, or maybe you are looking to buy more, so be sure to check out the latest trends in Brokered Patent Market. [...]

Changes in the global economic environment have influenced the development of business models where IP is a central element establishing value and potential growth. With IP playing such a crucial [...]

How do we identify infringing products? What is that one strategy that makes GreyB different? Chakshu, director at GreyB, wanted to prepare a list of all strategies we use to identify infringing [...]

You (or your company, for that matter) are working on developing a product. A result of a ton of brainstorming, a dozen or more presentations to senior management, and a couple of approvals [...]

Finding prior art for a patent that has a mathematical expression or a complex equation in its claim is hard. If you have worked on such cases before, you would know it is not like another [...]

Ever wondered why you are not able to license or sell your patents despite them being of high value?   Often, I come across licensing managers, IP heads and patent owners confused as to why they [...]

As a litigator, you love killer prior art,  don’t you? But sometimes you have to make do with 103-type if you are in the US. The sound of 103-type just made you sigh, didn’t it? It is justified [...]

Have you ever faced a situation where you had to find killer prior art in a limited time frame? Let me tell you what happened when we faced a similar challenge recently.  In this case client [...]

“Our group would like to proceed with the initial search outlined to identify companies who could be infringing U.S. Patent No. XXXX971”,  emailed Chris – Partner in a proclaimed law firm [...]

The patent system today in the US is a result of multiple decisions and verdicts that shaped the course of history for patent laws. Some decisions were minorly significant, while others had a [...]

How do you tell apart an abstract idea from another? More importantly, in this post-Alice era, how do you identify patent abstract ideas which determine the subject matter eligibility for claims? [...]

Joe came up with a great name for his soon-to-be-released product. He is proud of the selection and cannot wait to share it with the world. In this moment of excitement, he makes plans to move [...]

It was the onset of the new millennium. Three different entities- a cardiologist, a university, and a non-practicing entity (NPE), at three different points of time, committed a similar [...]

How much does a patent cost in … the US? Canada? Europe? China? Japan? South Korea? India? All right, one can always Google and find the cost of filing a patent in each of these countries. [...]

If you are planning to conduct a Google Patent Search and want to try your hands on Google Patents, you landed on the right page. This is one of the most comprehensive guides ever written on the [...]

Patent attorneys are often in a zero-sum game when it comes to litigation. Wins are attributed to how strong the prior art is with the attorney. My job is to find this prior art. Most patent [...]

The patent community has been facing a few prevalent issues recently. On 20th April, the USPTO unveiled the Patent Center in beta version to address those issues. The main highlights of this [...]

Has this ever happened to you – You are conducting a prior-art search and something keeps on jabbing at the back of your head, questioning whether you have explored everything?  Well, it happens [...]

After hearing the word patent infringement, the first thing that comes to most analysts’ minds is finding product literature and mapping it with the patent. What comes to our mind, on the [...]

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”  ― Jorge Luis Borges I’ve heard this quote many times, yet I haven’t felt it until now. Recently, I was analyzing the stats [...]

“My client wants a fresh search on a patent about LED substrates” emailed an attorney – our repeat client – on a Friday. “Of course, we can help you as this is relatable technology”, [...]

“I don’t know what else I can tell you, it seems nothing good exists,” said the attorney on a conference call. This conversation took place during one of the interim connects in the project [...]

Mark (Amused): How did you do it? There isn’t a single strategy that fits, I’ve been spiraling down and folding back with every other search partner. Aadesh (Me): Feels like an endlessly [...]

Almost every day, multiple patent litigations suits are filed. The increasing frequency of these cases indicates companies are now more inclined to stop competition or get value over their [...]

Imagine a situation where you are collating a patent portfolio for monetization or there’s a plan to acquire patents. This is like investing in gold or platinum, sort of a difficult call, isn’t [...]

Results found. No results found – Searches, in my opinion, have more to it than the outcome. As a searcher, of course, there are strategies and tactics involved to get to the result (or the lack [...]

While preparing a methodology for the projects, especially for a claim amendment study, deciding what to include and what not can take an extra bit of thinking. The client might have made his [...]

Like trial transcripts, birth certificates, and property deeds, patents are supposed to be freely available to anyone interested in reading them. And officially, they are: patents are a matter of [...]

When it comes to prior art searches, among the huge list of resources and strategies explored and employed during the search, searchers generally tend to give a low priority to already cited [...]

In our years of performing invalidation searches, there were often occasions when we found inspiration for prior art from the environment around us. There are way too many to link each of them, [...]

Around 2017, we heard from an inventor who’d grown dissatisfied with the IP research firm he’d been working with. He owned a patent dating to 2005 that had to do with the automated conversion of [...]

Recently, one of our client contacted us with a project which required a Reverse Engineering based infringement analysis of cutting edge tech. This article discusses how we went about the RE and [...]

A few years ago, as part of an ongoing relationship with a major U.S. defense contractor, we were asked to run a monetization analysis on a large patent portfolio, with an eye toward identifying [...]

An interesting thing happened when Deepak, Chakshu, Anmol, and I were in San Francisco in March this year. We were there for the Strata Conference, to collect the Edison Award that we had won for [...]

Did you know that an OLED is 200 times thinner than a strand of a human hair? The thickness of a strand of human hair is approximately 30 to 100 micrometers while that of an OLED is 100 to 500…

An attorney fighting a litigation suit is not unlike a soldier on a battlefield. The soldier equipped with sniper or high-tech weapons could give a deadly blow to the enemy, however, that’s not [...]

In the US, while presenting a piece of non-patent literature (NPL) as a valid prior art, the litigators have to overcome challenges of proving that the NPL was publicly accessible and that the [...]

Old times were simple.  There was a plaintiff, who tried to sue a company, and then the company asked us to find some good prior art. We logged in to simple patent databases, many of which [...]

In 2016, a major Chinese smartphone manufacturer came to us with a problem. The company was being sued by a competitor, also based in China, for patent infringement, and they would soon have [...]

In 2017, we were approached by an attorney representing a large manufacturer of digital and analog computer chips that we’ll call Chip and Dale Corp. The company had recently been contacted by [...]

If you are a person who deals with design patents, then we have written this article for you. This article highlights how conducting design searches using Google Image Search feature could throw [...]

Have you ever been in a situation where your IPR got instituted, but the PTO declared the challenged claim as valid? If a challenged claim(s) is declared valid by the USPTO in IPR, and later a [...]

You are an inventor. You have with great efforts secured a patent which has cost you a good quarter of your bank balance. You want to make the most out of your newly granted patent and decide to [...]

Many a time, even after multiple rounds of searches – in house, from the client’s side, and using vendors – leads to no results. One reason it happens because the winning prior art is [...]

We received a freedom-to-operate search from John, a decade-old client of ours. We share a pleasant relationship where we could discuss our concerns and requirements straight away. John was [...]

Claim charts play a crucial role in litigation. The strength of mapping can become a deciding factor that could turn the balance of the game in favor of either party. However, it ought to be [...]

If you want to understand prior art searches, you’ve landed on the right page. By the time you finish reading this guide, you’ll likely have built a solid understanding of what can be included in [...]

Patent infringement has become a lot common in the past couple of decades. With increased interconnectivity among technologies and the existence of thousands of patents covering them, it has [...]

In the US, litigation costs anywhere around USD 3-4 Million, with damages awarded, on an average being 8.9 Million USD. The largest patent infringement award to date is $2.54 billion.  As I was [...]

How difficult is it to find a solution to a problem you know nothing about? Difficult? Very difficult? Preposterous, you say? No, we are not being ludicrous. Though less often, [...]

Have you come across a situation when the search vendor you hired returned with a report concluding “no reference found”? There could be multiple reasons that your vendor returns with such a [...]

The patent set was already exhausted. Searching on standards for hours started feeling like inside of a spiral that keeps tightening as you go down. In between, some references emerged undeniable [...]

Not all prior art searches are run equally. Some are complex, some are easy, and some test your temperament by pushing you to the dark abyss of self-doubt where you question your abilities and [...]

In IP law firms, partners often face the daunting responsibility of building and implementing a business development strategy for the firm. These ‘Business Development’ (BD) activities are highly [...]

This is the third article of a 3 part series on Smart Business Development Strategies for IP Law Firms which discusses how to use data to build more clients for your IP law firm. The first [...]

This is the second article of a 3 part series on Smart Business Development Strategies for IP Law Firms which explains strategies to get more business from existing clients. The first [...]

This is the first article of a 3 part series on Smart Business Development Strategies for IP Law Firm which discusses how you can spot your differentiation factor. The second article in [...]

Breach of contract, unfair competition, and willful patent infringement – The very terms predominant in the complaint filed by wireless manufacturer Zomm against the Cupertino-based tech giant. [...]

After a long and hard day at work, I like to come home to a steaming cup of coffee, with toasted marshmallows on top, chocolate chip cookies on the side and some entertainment source to get my [...]

“Not today!” – I groaned as I woke up and saw the clock beside my bedside. It was 8:15 AM already and I had only 45 minutes to get to the office. I couldn’t afford to get late as I…

Are you a law firm or an independent attorney who is in search of some out of the box ideas for client acquisition? If Yes, Congratulations! You are at the right place.  Without wasting any time, [...]

I’m going to enforce my patent rights,” said Joey to Ross. Joey and Ross, both inventors and long-time friends, had met for drinks in a nearby pub. Recently, Joey has been struggling, mainly [...]

Drones fascinate me. They are wonderful tools of entertainment and transportation and has so much potential, which, if fully explored can change the way mankind transports. Technology companies [...]

I was leaning in my chair while watching those bees through the steam of my coffee. They were four in number, flying from one plant to another, from one flower to next, collecting the sugary [...]

Prior art can be found in a lot of places. Some conventional, others unimaginable yet a valid source of prior art – the unconventional one. As analysts, we are tuned to exhaust the conventional [...]

NuCurrent has been very active in providing wireless charging solutions since 2009, which were commercialized in 2012, while Samsung introduced a wireless charging kit as an add-on to the Galaxy [...]

Did you know that licensees pay huge licensing fees for Standard Essential Patents (SEP)? Unfortunately, not all those patents qualify for the criteria of being a SEP. Hence, in many licensing [...]

Understanding the objective of the client goes a long way in customer satisfaction and retention. At GreyB, we are huge believers in fulfilling the objective of the client – rather than [...]

Invalidating patents is hard. Invalidating a standard-essential patent (SEPs) is even harder. SEPs claim technical solutions that are part of industry standards. Needless to say, they are much [...]

We find prior art in a lot of unconventional places. Sitcoms, Pop culture magazines, FCC ID databases, Internet archives – Well, almost every place where you would least think of finding prior [...]

The purpose of a patent validity search is to validate the enforceability of claims of a patent. If you a plaintiff, a patent validity search will help you know if your patent is going to survive [...]

You would have handled cases where you gave the same search to multiple firms and only a handful returned with the art that you were looking for. Why is it that some search firms find the right [...]

I’m a self-confessed fan of sitcoms and movies. A binge-watcher by nature, I often spend weekends endlessly staring at my laptop screen, with munchies on my side, so that I don’t have to hit [...]

Click to read this article in Chinese 🇨🇳 What exactly is the objective of an invalidation search? That’s an easy question. Of course, it is to find a result – one that discloses [...]

During the course of the past decade, We have worked with various IP counsels, and figured that their strategy towards freedom to operate search can be classified into two major categories – [...]

As 5G technology is approaching realization faster, a surge could be noticed in the patent filing activity by telecom companies. China is at the forefront, in terms of filing numbers, as major [...]

“I don’t want to give a report with zero results to the client.” It was a beautiful, cold October morning. I was sitting at my desk sipping my latte when I received a mail in my [...]

James, a renowned Intellectual Property attorney from the US, works with IP search/consulting partners for assisting him with patent analysis. These IP partners perform analyses like patent [...]

Whether a corporate or a law firm, it relies somewhat or more on different search vendors for IP related searches. Generally, they have to be choosy and pick one or two good search vendors (out [...]

Prior art search is a big part of the work we do. When we started, we were convinced that prior art searches should never be run with a set framework where only the following few defined steps [...]

On May 22nd of 2017, the Supreme court of the US issued its landmark ruling on TC Heartland LLC V Kraft Foods, the decision being credited to have changed the law on venue for patent cases. Few [...]

IP House, a research group of 30 IP professional set up in 2014, analyzed 5022 out of 5432 cases handled by the Beijing IP Court, one of the three specialized IP court of China. Out of these [...]

Visual Memory sued NVIDIA for infringing its US5953740 patent. NVIDIA in a response filed a motion under Rule 12(b)(6) which was granted by the district court. The district court scrutinized [...]

On 8 June 2016, following a proposal from the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council adopted a Directive that aims to standardize the national laws in EU countries against [...]

Invalidation searches are not a cakewalk. That’s why a lot of time many prior art search service providers or your in-house team fail to return with a result you needed. Weak results or no [...]

At the end of the day, how well do we know our customers, is something that does matter. And, it feels awesome that yeah we do understand people we work for. The last week of August turned out to [...]

Often in business, you need to outsource certain tasks to an external vendor – either a freelancer or firm specialized in your vertical. Coming to the decision that you need to outsource a [...]

You will agree when I say it’s not always the hard work that leads you to success. Experience plays its sweet role by equipping you with abilities to make decisions that optimize and [...]

US9320716– An apparent sword in the arsenal of Cosmo Technologies -a subsidiary of COSMO Pharmaceuticals- has been on the battlefield a lot, lately. This weapon of choice, both individually [...]

“Tis’ the era of outsourcing!” And there’s nothing particularly wrong with it. This is especially true for In-house counsels and Patent Attorneys who are trying to find prior art to save their [...]

Ask a bunch of patent counsel how do they feel about performing a Freedom to Operate study, and you may hear a collective groan from the whole group. No doubt – performing an FTO is a cumbersome [...]

Of late, we have been performing a lot of invalidation searches on patents of 4G LTE. And I noticed a weird pattern – call it insight if you would like to – that I didn’t discover earlier while [...]

By the time the Alice decision marked its second anniversary, more than 8400 applications got abandoned while 60,000+ applications got rejected due to the decision. The district court decisions [...]

Recently, McCain filed a complaint in the court of Northen district of Illinois alleging that J.R. Simplot used its patented designs USD720916 in its Sidewinders product(as shown below). You [...]

I am very fond of Nokia and its products. Mostly because I feel they have greatly contributed to developing various 3GPP standards. So when I found out that Blackberry was suing Nokia (Source) [...]

“Patent trolls are bad for business.” “Patent trolls hurt innovation and US economy.” “Patent trolls are a threat to competitive markets.” “It’s time to kill patent trolls for good.” You have [...]

Having a sound prosecution strategy is as exigent to the growth of a portfolio as is the necessity of a sound patent strategy for the development of a business. And like every business has its [...]

Race of finding better prior art that can influence an IPR or patent litigation is the need of the hour. Such searches have become increasingly important in recent times, given the huge increase [...]

On December 1, 2016, Visual Effect LLC filed a lawsuit against NVIDIA Corporation for infringing two of its patents US8864304 and US9167235– for which it demanded a trial by jury. [...]

Do you know that nearly one-third of the patents involved in litigation were found to be invalid? Well, if you feel this number is high then you will find it difficult to accept our belief – We [...]

Seems like Christmas came early for Samsung! Last week, a landmark ruling in given on one of the most popular patent battles between Samsung-Apple on writ of certiorari to the United States Court [...]

Recent affirmation of an Examiner’s rejection by Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in response to an applicants’ appeal (2013-007847 – Ex Parte Randal C. Schulhauser) seem to open a new door [...]

The Alice v. CLS Bank has had a tremendous impact on how the patent office treats applications for business method inventions. Indeed, since the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice, the allowance [...]

Since 2013, one company in the bodybuilding supplement industry has been making rounds in many IP blogs. It has earned some accolades from the industry, like being the third most litigious patent [...]

Have you ever had a case where you had to perform an invalidation search and you need a prior art for a claim at the heart of which has a mathematical expression? Needless to say, you wouldn’t [...]

Patent thickets, broad patents, and patents covering vague and combinatorial claims have exponentially increased in number over the past few decades. Cloaking under the name of patent strategy, [...]

The main drawback of the patent system is that it only gives a patent holder a right to exclude without any provision to help them detect patent infringement. It is left on a patent holder to [...]

Organizations, to turn their future for good rely on big decisions. However, more often it’s the small decisions that matter the most. Nearly 100,000 U.S. patients are killed every year by the [...]

With the passage of time, technological terms have evolved drastically. Earlier phones were called radiotelephones, later as mobile stations, and now we use user equipment. Did you also consider [...]