Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Services: Patent Search

1. Introduction

2. General Bibliographic Searches

• Bibliographic Searches
• Citation searches Pre-Application Searches (PAS)
• State-of-the-Art Searches
• Novelty Searches/Prior Art Searches
• Family Member search /Equivalent patents search
• PCT National Phase Entry Survey

3. Concept Searches

• Freedom to operate search
• Infringement Analysis
• Markets-wise Patent trends Survey
• Technology trend Analysis
• Competitor Intelligence

4. Special Searches

• Special Searches For Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology Patents/applications

5. Monthly Patent-Watch

1. Introduction

Patents reveal solutions to technical problems and they represent an inexhaustible source of information: More than 80 percent of all technical knowledge is described in patent literature.

Patents provide valuable information which is of immense importance for making crucial decisions across the overall patent prosecution and patent enforcement process.

We conduct a variety of searches for finding out legal (ownership, inventors, reassignments, claims, etc.)as well as technical information(Prior Art and technical details including drawings) from all the major international patent databases.

Following are the representative searches that we carry out for diverse technological domains like Engineering (Electronics, Mechanical, electrical etc) and Life sciences (Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, other systems of medicine, environmental technologies etc)

2. General Bibliographic Searches

Following different searches are conducted for patents related to any technological or scientific area.

• Bibliographic Searches

  This type of search is the easiest and the quickest because the searcher already has a patent number or an inventor's name. The point of this type of search is to find out what is covered by a specific patent number or to find out what patents a particular inventor has to his or her credit. Bibliographic searches can be done as a part of historical, biographical or product research.

• Pre-Application Searches (PAS)

  At first, an invention is just an idea. Many details are not even known or recognized as relevant parts. A novelty search based on a vague idea can only result in a vague picture of the prior art.

  A preliminary search can provide a good estimate as to how strong a patent the inventor can hope to get. Patents are issued for things that are new and that are not obvious improvements on something else that is already known.

  A good search usually provides the basis for defining just what is new and "non-obvious” about an invention -- and that's the only part you can hope to protect anyway.

  The patent application process is difficult, time consuming and expensive; therefore, the inventor should conduct a "Pre-Application Search" (PAS) before filling a patent application.

  In this search, the inventor should look for any printed publications, public knowledge, or patents already issued in his country or a foreign country that may relate to the particular invention.

• State-of-the-Art Searches

  This kind of search, also referred to as "Informative Search," is made to determine the general state-of-the-art for the solution of a given technical problem as background information for R&D activities and in order to know what patent publications already exist in the field of the technology or research.

  Further reasons for undertaking this kind of search could be the wish to identify alternative technologies which may replace known technology or to evaluate a specific technology which is being offered for licensing or which is being considered for acquisition.

  State-of-the-art searches are especially useful for technology development or technology transfer purposes.

• Novelty Searches / Prior Art Searches

  The objective of a "Novelty Search" is to determine the novelty or lack of novelty of the invention claimed in a patent application or a patent already granted, or of an invention for which no application has yet been filed. The aim of the search is to discover relevant prior art.

  A key part of the patent application process is examining prior art. Each of the world’s patent offices examines a filed application based upon similar standards pertaining to the utility, novelty and non-obviousness requirements.

• Family Member search / Equivalent patents search

  This search is meant for finding out the family members of a specific patent document.

  When one patent application results in several patents in many different countries, all of the patents and applications associated with the original patent application is called the patent family.

• PCT National Phase Entry Survey

  This type of search is carried out for finding out whether a specific PCT Published Application has entered into the National Phase of any country. This search gives an idea as to whether that particular PCT application is being pursued in the country of interest or not and if it is being pursued, its legal status can be checked. This kind of input is especially helpful for due diligence, competitor intelligence and futuristic market watch.

3. Concept Searches

Following different concept searches are conducted for patents related to any technological or scientific area.

• Freedom to operate search

  This type of search is usually used to determine whether a particular action, such as testing or commercializing a product, can be done without infringing valid intellectual property rights of others.

  Since patents are territorial in nature a freedom to operate search is to be performed separately for each of the prospective markets.

• Infringement Analysis

  This type of search is performed in order to asses whether the proposed product or process is infringing any valid enforceable patent.

• Markets-wise Patent trends Survey

  This type of search gives an overall macro view of the patent protection for a particular product/ technology or process in selected markets like USA, Japan ,Latin Amearica, China , Africa Etc.

• Technology trend Analysis

  This type of search traces all the patents related to a selected technology or product/process over a period of time. The closely related patents are organized in chronological manner so as to identify technology development trends. This type of analysis is useful for long term strategic decision making especially for research and development units.

• Competitor Intelligence

  We conduct various types of highly customized searches that help in monitoring the activities of close competitors. Vital information as to the future strategies of the competitors as well as the direction of their R&D efforts and areas of their interests is gleaned from such searches which provide valuable inputs for the long term strategic planning process.

4. Special Searches

Special Searches for Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, Patents/applications

• Novelty of a new chemical compound
• Novelty of key intermediates
• Novelty of a Markush structure
• Designing and verifying the patentability scope of a Markush structure
• Infringement analysis of a new process
• Orange-book listed patent search
• Specific Non-patent literature article/paper search
• Survey of bolar provisions, Parallel trade provisions, data-exclusivity in specific markets

5. Monthly Patent-Watch

Under this service, we provide focused weekly updates on the published Indian patent applications related to specified technological area as suggested by the subscriber.