Prior Art Search

PRIOR ART SEARCH

Prior Art Search

What is a Prior Art Search?

An invention is eligible to receive a patent only if

It covers patentable subject matter
It is novel
It is not an obvious combination of pre-existing inventions

A prior art search (also called a patent search) reveals whether (or which portions of) the invention is truly novel and truly non-obvious, in light of all published literature (including patents, technical papers, products, manuals, and even university theses).

For new inventions, patent search helps you determine how likely is it that your invention (or portions thereof) will receive a patent. For existing patents, patent search helps you challenge their validity (for example, through an Inter Partes Review at the Patent Trial and Appellate Board).

Experts at Copperpod bring with them decades of patent search and patent litigation experience to help attorneys defend clients during patent infringement cases and evaluate patentability of new inventions. Our no-stone-unturned approach helps you not just find the perfect prior art, but also fully understand the state of the art. We also help invalidity experts understand, document and prepare their expert reports.

Our search covers more than 100 patent office databases around the world - including European, Japanese, Chinese and Korean patents - as well as all major non-patent literature and product databases.

10 Prior Art Search Mistakes That Undermine Your Inter Partes Review

Prior art search is a labor-intensive and time consuming task that requires right strategy to find the prior art document from patent & non-patent literature

CLIENT SUCCESS

Prior Art Search: Copperpod helps NY law firm file Inter Partes Review Petition

What is a Claim Chart?

A patent infringement claim chart is a visual representation of evidence showing how each claim limitation has been implemented by an infringing product or service. It is an essential artifact during any patent licensing or enforcement campaign, as it articulates the infringement theory in an easy to understand and difficult to refute format.
How much does a patent infringement claim chart cost?

A typical patent infringement claim chart costs between USD 500-3000, depending upon number of claims, claim complexity and the technology. Depending on volume, we also price claim chart projects either on an hourly rate or on a fixed-price basis. Read more "When Claim Charts Do More Harm Than Good For Patent Litigation and Licensing"
What is the turnaround time for a good patent infringement claim chart?

A good patent infringement claim chart takes 5-8 hours. Copperpod IP prepares litigation ready claim charts to serve our clients at the speed of need. The chart provides detailed analyst comments explaining how the evidence shows that the charted product or service implements the claim limitation, and annotations highlighting the most important portions of the cited evidence. Contact us here.
What types of evidence should be included in a patent infringement claim chart?

Evidence for a claim chart can come from a variety of sources, such as product manuals, product videos, technical standards, network packet captures, product tear down and reverse engineering, product testing and demonstrations and even source code of the software running on the product.
Can a patent infringement claim chart cover multiple products?

Depending on the jurisdiction and particular case details, a single claim chart can cover multiple products, though these products would usually be substantially similar to each other. Read more about the target scouting process.
Can expired patents be enforced?

Yes, expired patents can be enforced. The condition is, if the infringement happened during the active period of the patent then you have the right to sue for damages accrued over that portion of the active period - provided also of course the damages have accrued within the time allowed by the statute of limitations.
Do your patent infringement claim charts include reverse engineering evidence?

Yes, wherever applicable, Copperpod's patent infringement claim charts include hard-to-find and harder-to-refute evidence. We use a variety of Reverse Engineering (RE) techniques such as SEM, TEM, EELS, EDX, and packet sniffing to furnish such evidence of use.
Do your patent infringement claim charts include source code evidence?

Yes, wherever applicable, Copperpod's patent infringement claim charts include source code review evidence. Copperpod's source code experts navigate through the source code using specialized tools and software and are well versed in all modern programming languages and platforms.
Can you prepare a patent infringement claim chart for a discontinued product?

Yes, discontinued products can be charted for patent infringement. But due to the statute of limitations, you may not be able to recover damages beyond a certain time (often, 5-10 years) before the complaint for patent infringement is filed with the relevant court.
What is a Prior art search?

A prior art search (also called a patent search) reveals whether (or which portions of) an invention is truly novel and truly non-obvious, in light of all published literature (including patents, technical papers, products, manuals, even university theses).
How much does a prior art search cost?

A typical prior art search costs between USD 1000-3000, depending upon number of claims, claim complexity and the technology. Depending on volume, we also price prior art search projects either on an hourly rate or on a fixed-price basis.
What is the turnaround time for a prior art search report?

A patent literature prior art search report typically takes 3-4 days. An exhaustive prior art search (including non-patent literature) report could take from 5-8 days. Copperpod IP prepares an invalidity search report which is keyword based, citation based and inventor based search report and it contains result feature matrix, claim by claim mapping, detailed analyst comments explaining how the prior art shows that the patented claims are invalid, and annotations highlighting the most important portions of the cited prior art.
What types of evidence would be included in a prior art search report?

Evidence for a prior art search can come from a variety of sources, such as : Patent databases (USPTO, EPO, CNIPA, JPO, IP Australia, IPOS, IPO, WIPO and nearly a 100 other jurisdictions) Non-Patent literature database (IEEE, ACM, ScienceDirect, SCOPUS, ITU-T, Google Scholar, Amazon, Google Books and many more) Product manuals, product videos Technical standards Product teardowns Source code of the software running on old products
Do your prior art search reports include Non Patent literature as well?

Yes, our prior art search report covers NPL (Non-Patent Literature) database as well, such as IEEE, ACM, ScienceDirect, SCOPUS, ITU-T, Google Scholar, Google Books and Scribd, PubMed, IBM-TDM, GlobalSpec, COMPENDEX, SIAM Amazon, Infibeam, eBay Internet Archives Product manuals, product videos and demonstrations, Technical standards Product teardowns Source code of the software running on old products
Do your prior art search reports include obviousness (USC 103) prior art references?

Yes, our prior art search report provides analysis covering top anticipatory prior art as well as possible prior art combinations for showing how an invention may have been obvious in view of the various prior art combinations.
Do you do design patent prior art search?

Yes, we do design patent prior art search. Our design patent prior art search strategies include: Product reviews websites Product prototype search (Crowdfunding site) Product Designs Manufacturer's samples E-Commerce websites Geography-Based or Region-Specific search Product backtracking Google Lens Locarno Classification Patent citation analysis Keyword based search Product videos on social media