How we decided to challenge a formulation patent based on its claim language?
Finding a bang-on prior art result with all the required features and publishing before the cut-off date of your targeted patent is the end game. Right? But what if you still cannot use it against the target patent? It’s a very tricky situation, which makes this case interesting. We recently came across a situation where, […]
How collaborative problem solving landed us a Tier 1 prior art? Ft. Souvik
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 isn’t anything wrong with it, at times the problem is bigger than us. Hence, when stuck in a situation, taking a different […]
Why do GreyB Analysts add manual Data Cleaning and Validation over the automatic ones?
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 mistakes in the patent document. Additionally, clerical or database error also eliminates important information in the patent. When companies request […]
Time travel to find prior art in a Social Media project
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 read multiple case studies, and it isn’t a bed of roses! Though I cannot understand the struggle of our researchers, as they […]
How did we find Prior Art in YouTube’s video demonstrations?
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 understood that a keen eye is required for analyzing patents. A miss of a single result can be catastrophic. For example, in […]
How we built a strong case to license a patent that had no infringement
“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 we get here? What did we do next? And how did we win this one? Well, let’s back track […]
The art of prior-art searching – Finding prior-art for a dental device on Facebook
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 researcher at GreyB, I have heard so many stories from my peers and seniors about when they had nothing in […]
Patent Invalidation search: Invalidating a Med-Tech patent by concept-hacking
“… 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, we conducted a successful patent invalidation search of a recently litigated patent in the US? Yes, that’s right. One of our old clients, Sean, […]
How we approach Chemical/Markush structure searching?
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 want to make sure you extract maximum ROI from the drug. The logical step would be to get a patent on […]
Using Non Patent Literature for invalidating Whey Protein formulation patent
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 a thorough search, chances are this happens with the best of us. Searching prior art for formulation patents is a whole different […]
How preprint servers gave us an edge in an invalidation search
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 have existed despite a thorough search. While each of the searchers has their own set of strategies they like to […]
Prior-art in News articles: How purchasing a new phone led to a killer prior-art?
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 traditionalist, you will list down all the possible databases and search tools where there are chances of finding prior art. However, if […]
How to strategize a search when there is no prior art for invalidation?
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 strong that we get a sense of vulnerability. Co-relating the above lines to high-profile litigation cases, oftentimes there are circumstances, where round after round of […]
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 […]
