What are the roadblocks in sequence searching and how to overcome them?
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 anyone else’s patents. There are various costs involved in manufacturing and marketing this product, and you do not want to get entwined in […]
How to Invalidate Pharma Patents on “Obvious to Try” grounds?
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 possible solution would be to prove ‘lack of inventive step’ based on obviousness. In pharmaceutical patents especially, obviousness is a hot […]
Finding system prior-art in old battered phones (Patent invalidation)
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 challenging enough, here’s some additional info – The patent-in-suit has already been through multiple rounds of searching by numerous IP vendors, and the patent stood […]
How System Prior Art can help videogame companies avert patent litigation?
“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 with Mr. Tretton’s characterization, for a lot of us, are a part of this gaming coterie. Talking about our coterie, another segment you […]
How to find prior art without spending countless hours on citation analysis?
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 cited patents. It is difficult to go beyond because as you go from the third to fourth generation patents, the number of patent […]
How we found a prior art in patent invalidity case from a previous lawsuit
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 invalidate the claims of a patent? Not yet? Grab a cup of Joe as today I’ll narrate the tale of how we found […]
How we used literature available after the cut-off date to find X references?
“Do you think prior-art searches are only about looking at relevant literature available before the cut-off date?” – I asked the newly joined members of my team. All bewildered by the question, responded with a nod in unison. “Well, you all are kind of right. This is the reason most of the searches are focused on […]
Designing a Product – How Ignoring Patent Clearance Search could be fatal?
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 – You have high hopes for the product. A significant innovation in your niche, you are pretty sure the sales numbers would […]
How to find prior art when mathematical expressions are part of the claim elements?
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 keyword-based search that can be done by anyone. Spending more time would also not give you the desired result. […]
Prior Art Search: Digging Deep into Combination Art
As a litigator, you love killer prior art, don’t you? But sometimes you must 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 too. Weak prior art can create conflicts for any attorney in any case. Fighting with a 103-type prior […]
Can our products face litigation when they come to the market?
How do you assess for your company, if the risk of patent litigation is ahead on the cards? Companies, especially the ones based on internet technology face a constantly evolving landscape. This in turn makes them vulnerable to financial and reputational losses if IP risks develop. As a result, it has created an exigency for […]
How intellectual curiosity helped us identify a killer prior art in a short timeframe?
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 wanted a killer art, but within a week. Tom, a European litigation attorney, came to us with a prior […]
Non-patent Search: How we killed an ecigarette patent
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 to most of us, particularly while exploring non-patent literature. Let’s assume, that you have finally managed to exhaust all the patent literature […]
An FTO Search Strategy That Can Effectively Cover All Kinds Of Threats
As a business head, how do you handle the Freedom to Operate (FTO) study for a product that has multiple features? Do you feel the fear of missing out on possible threats while conducting the clearance search? Fear of missing out on threats is quite justified because your key objective with the search would be […]
Books: A wonderful source of finding prior art!
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” ― Jorge Luis Borges I’ve heard this quote many times, yet hadn’t felt it until now. Recently, I was analyzing the stats of the projects we’ve done over the last year and was very happy that in the majority of the cases we […]
Case of really tough LED patent previously under lawsuits and part of PTAB petitions.
“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”, replied a new associate from our Sales team after having checked with me twice on a Friday night call, “We are […]