Prior Art Searches
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A Prior Art Search is a type of patent search that gives you valuable information about whether your invention will qualify for a patent. Without a prior art search, you will be operating in an information vacuum and will not be able to form an educated opinion about whether you can patent your invention.
Patentability Search
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Novelty or patentability search is the first search required to decide resource allocation and optimize spending on assessment of your concept for initiating a patent process. In your patent prosecution practice, you may come across thousands of inventions that require your attention to analyze whether it is feasible to file your patent application or not. This search is a precursor to plan the allocation of resources if the invention needs to be further evaluated for patent application drafting.
On multiple occasions, IP Signals has been asked to conduct patentability or novelty study before the draft a patent or idea evaluation or initiating a patenting process. We start the patentability search with an understanding of the subject invention and formulating key features of the invention. Based on the key features, relevant keywords and their synonyms are identified and is followed by a class-based search, assignee-inventor search, and citation search. Foreign language searches are also conducted. Thereafter the patent analyst at IP Signals read through complete specification of identified prior arts. The shortlisted results which are similar or closer to the features of the subject invention are delivered to the client in a well-documented report format.
State of the art Search
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State of the Art patent search is the broadest of all patent searches and is used to gain an overall perspective of a particular patent field. A State of the Art Search is used to help guide strategy - at both an IP and corporate level - and can help deliver a long-term market advantage. It is essentially a market survey that takes a broad, sweeping look at everything that has been done in a given art.
IP Signals understands your requirement carefully and then provide customized solutions depending on your end objective. Further, we make sure that the searches conducted by our experts capture all relevant references.
Freedom to Operate Search
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The Freedom to Operate (FTO) search or a clearance search is performed to identify the companies or the organizations and their respective patents which can obstruct the commercialization of patent in question in the geography of interest. If there exist any obstructing patents, the company can negotiate or in-license the overlapping patented technology before launching the product to avoid the infringement later.
In general, this type of search is conducted before launching a product in the geographical area of interest to ensure that the launched product does not infringe any patented technology later. The best results from freedom to operate search will be granted patent overlapping with the technology of interest. The published (pending patents) and expired patents are also given in results to ensure comprehensive reporting. IP Signals assist clients in a number of FTO searches for various jurisdictions worldwide in various technology domains such as electrical, software, life science, chemical, oil & gas, semiconductors, etc.
Invalidity Search
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Validity/Invalidity searches establish the enforceability of an issued patent for an infringement defense or to thoroughly inspect a patent before assignment or license. Validity/Invalidity searches require an extensive and thorough search for locating important hidden prior art that can nullify the claims of the blocking patent. IP Signals has consistently assisted US, European, Malaysian, Japanese, and Australian Attorneys in finding evidence of prior disclosure for inventions.
Many of our clients (litigation attorneys) are working with us on a contingency basis with their clients and frequently engage IP Signals on Validation and Invalidation assignments. After the search, we do meaningful documentation of results, and our analysis includes the technical grounds on which we find the prior art to be relevant against the validity of the claims. All Validity/Invalidity Searches undergoes our detailed quality assurance checks before they are delivered to our clients.