Conducting a patent landscape analysis is really complex. You need to spend hundreds of hours, should have vast expertise in the specific field, have access to numerous data and tools, have training in big data and specialized in landscaping techniques to conduct this analysis. And of course advanced technical and legal training is required to conduct this critical analysis. So it is a necessity to hire services of a professional patent search professional to do this job.

After conducting the patent landscape analysis, the expert will make a report that describes the perceptual structure of patenting and innovation activity in a specific technology area. The report will describe and disclose a variety of information including competitors, patenting trends and the possible future developments related to the specific field or topic. Your patent search partner will provide you a graphical representation or the mapping of data which helps you to understand the entire technology landscape. With the help of this report, you can indulge in strategic research planning and business planning, and determine whether to enter a specific area or not.

Hope you will agree now why you should hire a professional to help you prepare a report after conducting a patent landscaping analysis.

Hurry up now! Hire an expert today.

In today’s era of modern technology and its accessibility, companies tend to use technology created by others knowingly or unknowingly. In such situations, the job of an infringement analyst becomes very crucial. Mainly experts working in the field of patent prosecution and patent search conduct infringement analysis.

Infringement analysis or search is conducted to make sure nobody uses, develops or sells your patented invention. First, the scope is determined and it is checked whether all the important elements of the claim are present in the product or process.

The infringement analysis can be critical. It depends on the subject of technology and process used while drafting the patent. The challenges faced by the analysts are uncountable. For example – one challenge they face is a large number of unexpected results coming up during the procedure. This can be annoying.  The analysts need to have the right knowledge and experience to get the analysis done in the right manner.

Under such scenarios, hiring a competent patent search provider for conducting infringement analysis is a great idea. They have relevant knowledge and experience to conduct the infringement analysis in a proper manner.

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In today’s ever increasingly competitive marketplace, an important key to effective innovation, planning, and management is a patent landscape. Companies and individuals are using them to effectively identify risks and opportunities created by intellectual property based issues.

According to patent validity search professionals, a patent landscape helps businesses in planning a correct course of action that provides a competitive edge. It enables clients to identify patent issues quickly and by decreasing the time required to perform responsive actions. Here, it will not be wrong to say that it may enable a more efficient and effective prior art search during patent preparation. A patent landscape is used to identify areas to be addressed by the development team during the product design, and identifying potential acquisition targets. They can be performed generally for any kind of business operation, but the most common situation is in the context of supporting the development and release of new products.

When you are getting the analysis done, make sure the findings clearly identify risk areas and whitespaces in the reference of the technology that is important to you.  If you hire an expert for this job, it is certain you will get the job done the right first time.  Make sure the expert provides you a detailed analysis and have answers to all questions that you have in mind in reference to your new idea, product or invention.

Patents are issued by a patent office on the basis of the explanation of the claims of the invention and their comparison with the closest referenced patents identified. The references are provided by the applicant to the patent office to help the examiner in the examination process. Once the examiner has considered the provided references, he/she makes a fresh search in the patent and non-patent databases to identify if there are other arts available to the near invention. After conducting the search, the examiner will either take the decision to reject the claims of the patent and force the applicant to make changes to claims of the patent or issue the patent if the invention satisfies all the requirement of patentability.

A patent validity search focuses on finding a reference or a piece of information which can be proved that a patent has been incorrectly issued. There are many reasons for conducting these searches. Just think of the situation when your product may face a threat from an active patent or you wish to purchase a license of another’s patent rights. In the case of violation of suits, where your product is in trouble because it violates the right of an active patent, one of the best ways to defend is to prove the patent in question is invalid.

Expert helping businesses with patent validity searches and patent filing in India follow a step to step procedure to make sure the search is done accurately.

Important patent validity searches steps

• Evaluate if the patent is active or not
• Review the file history of the patent which shows the complete protests and arguments between the applicants and the examiner at the patent’s office.
• Evaluation of patent and non-patent literature search to find out relevant references before the critical date of patent in question.
• Examine and compare the search results with the issued claims, and prepare a claim chart to show to what degree the claims in question match the scope of the uncovered reference.

Getting a patent validity search done is a daunting task and needs knowledge and experience of a professional. It is highly recommended to hire a service provider that has knowledge and experience in your specific industry and has a good understanding of the need of the validity search. They should have proficiency in searching patent and non-patent literature by using world leading databases to find out the closest matching references. Your patent expert should have the skills to prepare a well-informative report that helps you to judge the extent of the claims to be invalidated.

It has become important than ever today to capture full advantages of innovation by adopting patent landscaping. It is an effective innovation planning and management which is used to identify risks and opportunities. In easy words, a patent landscape is a competitive view of a technology area as seen through the lens of patent ownership or scope. Businesses can take help of this business strategy to design responsive techniques early in the innovation cycle.

There are many features of patent drafting. It streamlines technology in a particular area and maps patent assets to the organization so that clients can identify areas of interests. It also provides some accurate basis for the clients to choose a business course of action and correlate patent data with non-patent data to provide context.

Why businesses choose patent landscaping?

According to experts who operate in the field of patent landscape and patent drafting/preparation, patent landscapes are performed for any business operation. But the most common scenario is in the context of supporting a new development and release of a new product. It is highly recommended to perform a review before a product is developed or after the fact. It provides an initial analysis that helps to identify the competitors in the product field and identify areas in which the client may not be able to differentiate its product. Another use of patent landscaping and analysis is during product development, where the basic goal is likely to create and implement a successful defensive patent strategy. During product development stage, the review can help you identify and resolve threats. It is also used to identify potential prior art to be cited during prosecution. It is clear no patent landscape can completely eliminate risk from patent suits. However, it allows a business to identify and neutralize risks practically.

Apart from the advantages, there are also many reasons for performing a patent landscape. One good cause is known as notice risk, although recent case law as substantially reduced this risk. The second reason is the way a patent landscape is performed may not provide the expected or needed advantage. The second reason is stronger. Many patent landscapes are expensive. Some may cost you tens of thousands of dollars. And definitely, there should be some rate of return. Just as with any service provider, you should evaluate the services of the patent landscape providers and their products closely before choosing any one of them for your business needs.

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A patent specification is a complex techno-legal document and drafting a patent is a critical function which helps you to protect your invention. It is the most critical document which protects your invention and thus needs to be drafted to perfection. Drafting a patent specification requires a deep understanding of technology as well as complete knowledge of relevant procedure and laws. Patent attorneys tend to use the phrase Patent Drafting/Preparation to indicate the process where they write the patent description and claim. This is a very creative and bespoke process in which they transform the inventor’s idea into a document to get the best possible patent.

While drafting a patent, you will require a patent attorney who truly understands your invention from a technical perspective and can translate the insights into a strong patent application which provides your business with a strong protection for your innovation. Now, there are certain situations when patent needs to be enforced depending upon the industries. Sometimes you need to know whether a patent is valid or invalid.

A patent validity search or invalidity search is an analysis for understanding the strength of patent claims. It can be used in determining the viability of an invalidity defense while facing a patent infringement suit. These patent validity searches can also be used to pro-actively assess the validity of a patent prior to enforcing it.

When to use a patent validity search?

• To invalidate patent when threatened with infringement
• Prior to patent licensing
• To prepare for patent enforcement
• 
  

What are the things that need to be provided for a patent validity search?

• Patent number and the specific claim which you need to invalidate
• Target priority date
• Any known prior arts that is not listed
• 
  

When to conduct a patent invalidity search?

• Upon receiving a patent infringement complaint from a patent owner
• Upon receiving a cease and desist notice from a patent owner
• Prior to enforcing your own patents to determine invalidity risks
• For pre-issuance submissions, post grant review(PGR) proceedings

Lastly, before you sue someone for patent infringement always carry a validity search to confirm the strength of your legal claims. And, if someone has sued you for infringing a patent then you can use a patent validity search to invalidate that patent. So, ensure to choose a trusted and highly skilled patent attorney who can meet all your specific needs and provide you with the best protection and patent to your inventions.

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Have you ever worked with a professional prior art searcher for high technology or science? If yes then you know what kind of report you will get at the end of the project. Certainly, you will pay for the search because you do not have the prior art information you are looking for. Nevertheless, you expect the search results to be highly relevant to the claims or product of interest. What patent litigation support professionals or patent attorneys have found is they do not find any consistency in the output provided by prior art searchers. Sometimes they are successful in producing a very accurate set of relevant references. But, at times they miss out important results and produce a large list of references that waste patent attorney's time in sorting out things and client money as well. This kind of inconsistency shown by prior art searchers exposes a more threatening underlying problem of missing very relevant existing prior arts.

It is wrong in saying that it is completely a fault of prior art searchers. The searchers are not able to solve the problem no matter how carefully they search. These searches require two types of expertise. First, you need a patent drafting/preparation expert with good hands-on experience in classification or text search techniques. The expert should also know the tricks of trade required for quickly and thoroughly searching various global patent databases and non-patent literature. Secondly, you need a subject matter expert of the claims of interest in order to find out what is relevant and worth considering. Along with this, you will also need a validated methodology, so that the two experts can work together without wastage of time and money while maintaining the consistency in finding the relevant prior art.

Patent litigation support and patent drafting/preparation support experts highly recommend the selection of registered searchers who have conducted many searches across international patent databases. Pairing a search specialist with a technology specialist whose expertise matches the claims of the products is bound to produce cost-effective, highly reliable and consistent results for the clients.

You can have access to professional patent search experts by taking help of Internet. Today, all patent search service and patent litigation service providers have an online presence. You can visit these websites to know more about the services they provide. You can also check the reviews to find out whether they meet the expectations of their clients or not. By doing an exhaustive research, you will definitely end up finding a search expert who will meet your requirements.

Through a patent, you get the authority to stop others from making, using or selling your invention. Very often people confuse patents with copyrights, trademarks, and industrial designs. Just like patents, they are also rights and forms of intellectual property. However, there are many important differences. Patent cover new and useful inventions or any new and useful improvement to an existing invention. Trademarks may be one or a combination of words, sounds and designs used to differentiate the goods and services of one company from the other. Copyright offers protection for literary, artistic, dramatic or musical works. Industrial designs are the visual features of shape, configuration, pattern or any combination of these features applied to a finished article.

Next is what you can patent?

There are three basic criteria for patentability. The criteria include novelty, utility, and inventiveness.  You can get the patent for your invention if it is a product, a composition, the machine, a process or an improvement on any of these. Remember you can get a patent only for the physical embodiment of an idea or a process that produces something tangible. You cannot patent methods of doing business (in India), a scientific process or an abstract theorem.

It is always a smart decision to file a patent as soon as possible after you complete your invention. In case you know someone who is on the similar track, then you need to act quickly. Hiring a professional who has good experience in patent preparation, patent filing in India and abroad, and patent prosecution support will help you in the best possible manner throughout the entire process.

The process of patent filing in India or any other country is quite challenging. It is expensive and time-consuming too. The entire process will be divided into many sub-divisions like performing patent research, finding out whether your idea or invention has been patented (or known) before or not, write a detailed description of your invention, write language that safeguards your invention from infringement, respond to objections from the patent office and more. So, it really makes a lot of sense to hire one of the best attorneys for your patent needs. Your attorney will take care of all the aspects of your patent filing procedure. Along with that, they will also be on your side for providing patent prosecution support.

You can easily hire a professional patent attorney to suit your needs. Before hiring, clear all your queries so that you are fully satisfied that you have an expert by your side to help you along the entire process of patent filing.

Businesses and agencies believe that receiving a patent offers them protection against infringement. However, when a patent is threatened, the holders must act immediately and take effective steps to safeguard their interests. If a scenario of patent infringement related litigation arises, the patent holder should consult a patent litigation support expert or an attorney to take necessary actions.

Patent infringement occurs when another party creates, utilizes, or sells a patented item without the permission of a patent holder. In such cases, the patent holder may sue the infringing party to stop his/her activity and ask for a compensation for the unauthorized use.

If the court finds infringement, the infringer has to pay for the damages to the patent holder. The payment can either be in the form of actual damage or a sensible royalty for the unauthorized use. Actual damages include lost profits the patent holder might have realized while a sensible royalty depends on the type of product, patent validity, and other arrangements. The prevailing party also has to bear other expenses such as court filing fees and related expenses.

It is always advisable to get professional help from a patent research/analytics or a patent litigation support expert in cases pertaining to patent infringement. You should seek legal help as this subject matter is highly complicated. Patent attorneys and litigation support experts can help you in securing high-end litigation services.

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One of the most common questions asked by a businessman about patent validity search is the timing. They want to know when they should go for a patent search. Although it is a reasonable question, but there is no definite answer for this as it is a matter of choice and largely depends on its purpose. Mostly, the inventors look for a patent search once they have an invention that they think is worth patenting. But, sometimes they opt for patent search even when their invention is not completed.

You should always get the patent search conducted by a service provider with good hands-on experience on patent validity search and patent infringement claim charts. The service provider will conduct a patent and non-patent literature search to identify whether a patent, which one might be charged with infringing, is valid or not. Along with the search, the expert will also help you to prepare patent infringement claim chart and other reports according to your needs.

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Think of this scenario. You are a patent holder and you suspect someone may be infringing on your exclusive rights related to your invention. And then you contact your patent prosecution support partner or your patent attorney to help you prevent or stop this kind of illegal behavior. Hopefully, your patent support partner recommends for an infringement analysis. You might think analysis may be a waste of time and money because your requirement is just to stop the infringing behavior. But your thinking is wrong here. When you will go through the details provided by your patent attorney after the analysis, your opinion will change. The report will contain many elements for your reference. This will help you appreciate the importance of such an effort.

Here are a few elements that you will see in the infringement report provided by your patent prosecution support and analysis service provider.

Patent Infringement Claim Chart or Evidence of Use (EOU) chart

The patent infringement claim chart or Evidence of Use (EOU) chart provides a straightforward mapping of all the independent and/or dependent claims of the patent to the infringing product and/or process of the competitor. These charts are in the form of table, with the language of a patent claim broken down step-by-step in the first column and the description of the infringing product and/or process in the second column. A given claim is infringed only when each row of the table shows an element in the first column that is matched with a competitor’s product and/or process in the second column.

Materials pertaining to infringement

Although the patent infringement claim chart may summarize everything about the act of infringement of your competitor, still your patent search service provider will seek to find many things about the infringing product or process, system and device within time and budget constraints. Many objects from your competitor’s business operation that may be useful in proving infringement may include examples of diagrams, photographs, user and maintenance, sales content and advertisement. 

Other than the two important points discussed above, the infringement analysis report will also include a damage analysis, presentation of possible actions you may choose to take next and also recommendation for confirmation on validity of the patent. When we talk about the presentation of possible actions that you can take next, it is all about cease and desist letter, propose licensing to the competitor, plan sale of the patent to a competitor or proposing some other collaborative arrangement with the competitor.

Hopefully, you might now be satisfied why you should adhere to the suggestion provided by your patent search service provider about the infringement analysis. 

With an increase in the number of new products, new technologies, innovations in the market; and the number of patents filed on annual basis continue to increase, the process of analyzing freedom to operate is becoming more complicated to achieve. In most of the cases, it can be dicey to attempt to bring an innovation to the market without first conducting a freedom to operate search. In doing so, the products or any other innovation can be susceptible to infringement suits, potentially resulting in costly legal action process. This can further force the company to withdraw a product from the market altogether.

You should appoint a professional service provider for conducting freedom to operate (FTO) search for you. They will help you detect third-party live patents that may obstruct an invention’s marketable exploitation. This analysis will provide you get insights into the current state of the art so that they can tailor their patent filing strategies accordingly. By discovering conflicting patents early in the development process, you will be able to reduce the risk of launching a product that infringes a third party’s rights.

A professional FTO search will also help in identifying third parties who may need to be approached for a license early in the product and technology progress process. Your service provider will work with you to develop cost-effective searches on the markets of interest to them. By getting this search conducted along with their innovative pipelines, IP and other business strategies, you will be able to help ensure that your investment in research and development is worth when the product reaches the market.

A freedom to operate (FTO) search will help you define your innovation more clearly, identify your competitors and many other aspects of research relating to the invention’s technology.

By :www.iiprd.com

Patent prosecution is the process of interaction between an applicant and the patent office through his/her legal representative(s) with respect to a patent application. It involves highly complex, technical and legal issues. Basically, it is a process of writing and filing a patent application and pursuing protection with a patent office. Primarily, pre-grant prosecution aims to negotiate with the patent office for grant of the patent.

Patent prosecution is distinct from patent litigation, which describes the legal action relating to the infringement of patents. It requires a complete understanding and in-depth knowledge of procedures and potential pitfalls. With the global emphasis on innovation, patent protection continues to grow at a considerable rate that has made it very crucial and challenging. Patents are the valuable assets for any business and patent prosecution sets the stage to protect and enforce these assets/innovations.

Patent prosecution services primarily include performing technical analysis and responding to office actions.

Other allied services include –

•  Auditing patent portfolios
• Carrying Patent Research / Analytics, rendering patentability, validity, and non-infringement opinions
• Delivering in-house educational training and seminars on patent laws and related issues
• Resolving ownership disputes regarding patient rights

At the end, getting assistance through a reputed patent attorney or IP consulting firm can be a right decision for protecting your patents/innovation or assets.

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Patent litigation is a complex and integral part of IP protection. It is often a drawn out process due to its several complexities in understanding, construing the claims, strength in evidence and explaining terms and concepts.

However, in today’s pace of the business world, neither you nor your client can afford a lengthy court battle holding up the operations, budgets, and overall strategies. Also, if you are engaged in IP litigation then you need patent litigation support services which can produce favorable outcomes for your company or client in court.

There are a number of competent and trusted attorneys and IP consulting firms who can deliver a wide range of patent litigation support services for intellectual property disputes. With their deep industrial knowledge and understanding, in-house counsels with a team of professionals can provide invalidity searches/prior art searches, damages valuations, and insight that can change the entire litigation strategy.

Some of the patent litigation support services offered by attorneys include:

• Analysis of patents and providing clients with possible claim construction in an easily understandable format
• Reviewing and summarizing all necessary documents pertaining to the case
• Preparation of patent infringement claim charts (Evidence of Use or EOUs) that provides the comparison between the claims of the subject patent and relevant products that may be infringing subject patent’s claim.
• Analysis of Markman hearings, expert opinions, testimony, and affidavits
• Drafting assistance in infringement complaints

Lastly, IP litigation is a very expensive process and needs an in-depth understanding of various IP issues, that can be best handled through an IP consulting firm or an attorney.

Companies should understand the risks of potential infringement prior to launching a new product or service into the marketplace. Freedom to operate searches are the tools used to determine the risks of main patent infringement prior to launching a new product or service in the market. This kind of search identifies patents with claims that may cover a technology. You need to provide a detailed description of your product or service including a list of features requiring clearance and specify the regions where you plan to launch or market your product or service.

You should have the list of your competitors, patent holders and the patents that may be relevant to your product or service. There are many situations for which you should conduct a freedom to operate searches. They are required at the time of product or service launch in any specific region, prior to finalizing a product design so that possible workarounds can be engineered, and prior to investing in a marketing strategy. 

Freedom to operate search studies can be time-consuming and costly. So companies take the time to decide when and where to perform these analyses to reduce risk and maximize value. 

What are the factors that drive them to take informed decisions?

Here are some of the top factors.  

Amount of investment and value of the product : 

It is important for a company to consider the product or service they are going to launch or acquire in terms of its value to the company. Whether it is a high-profit item or low-margin product?  A product with high margin or high volume is most likely to lead to high damage awards if a patent-infringement case goes to trial. Therefore, it is a sensible decision to take the extra step and clear the product before proceeding. Cell phones and televisions are a few examples of products in this category. 

Know what your business objectives are and risk tolerance:

Before you hire an expert to do freedom to operate analysis, a company should give serious thought to how it will handle the results. Do you seek to avoid litigation at all costs? Or are you prepared to walk away from the new product or service if the conditions are not suitable? You need to analyze all these factors before you hire a professional service provider to conduct freedom to operate search for your company.

 The service provider can also help you with other services including patent searches.

So you need to make sure the service provider has good knowledge and experience of this field.