PATENT RESEARCH
PATENTABILITY
This determines if prior art exists that would prevent an idea or invention from being patented. Our attorneys, patent agents and technology specialists search for any pre-existing documents that a Patent Examiner would likely use against a patent application during examination. The search may uncover relevant documents including U.S. and foreign patents, published patent applications and non-patent printed publications such as thesis papers and dissertations.
This search includes:
- Focused manual classification search for US and/or foreign patents and applications
- Keyword search to cover any misclassified documents
- Assignee/Inventor search
- Non-patent literature searching
INFRINGEMENT/
CLEARANCE/
FREEDOM-TO-OPERATE
An infringement search compares a client’s proposed product, method or idea to non-expired U.S. patents and determines whether any patent claims read on the client’s proposed product or method. The search uncovers relevant U.S. patents and published patent applications; and can be expanded to include foreign patents and patent applications.
A clearance search is similar to an infringement search, but also looks to uncover expired prior art documents. Clearance searches are also referred to as “freedom-to-operate”, “freedom-to-use”, “freedom-to-practice” or “right-to-market” searches.
In addition to a standard clearance search, the search may be customized when your product is in a conceptual phase and one or more specifics of the product is unknown. For that unknown element, we may perform a broader search that would capture any potential documents with claims of interest once the product is fully developed.
This search includes:
- Focused manual classification search for US and/or foreign patents and applications
- Keyword search to cover any misclassified documents
- Assignee/Inventor search
VALIDITY/INVALIDITY
This determines the validity of an issued patent by locating any prior art documents or references that would invalidate the claims of interest. This search focuses on documents predating the priority date of the patent in question. Our team also reviews the file history to best understand the points of novelty.
This search includes:
- Focused manual classification search for US and foreign patents and applications
- Keyword search to cover any misclassified documents
- Assignee/Inventor search
- Non-patent literature search
LANDSCAPE/
STATE-OF-THE-ART/
ANALYTICS
The landscape search provides a snapshot of the technology and can be further refined to a clearance/freedom-to-operate or patentability search once a final embodiment becomes available. The search includes an overview of U.S. patents and publications disclosing apparatuses and methods relevant to the idea or product and can be expanded to include foreign patents and non-patent publications. Landscapes can be used to identify the whitespace available in technology areas.
A state-of-the-art search is conducted when a broad, general inventive concept still must be given a final, more precise embodiment. Based on the broadness of the proposed product, idea or method, Kramer IP’s team may uncover a large number of references ranging from U.S. patents to published patent applications and can be expanded to include foreign patents and non-patent publications.
A state-of-the-art search is conducted when a broad, general inventive concept still must be given a final, more precise embodiment. Based on the broadness of the proposed product, idea or method, Kramer IP’s team may uncover a large number of references ranging from U.S. patents to published patent applications and can be expanded to include foreign patents and non-patent publications.
This search includes:
- Focused manual classification search for US and/or foreign patents and applications
- Keyword search to cover any misclassified documents
- Assignee/Inventor search
- Non-patent literature searching
COLLECTION
A collection search locates all U.S. patents still in force, published patent applications and also expired patents now in the public domain for the specific subject matter.
This search includes:
- Focused manual classification search for US and/or foreign patents and applications
- Keyword search to cover any misclassified documents
- Assignee/Inventor search
- Non-patent literature searching
BIOTECHNOLOGY
When performing searches directed towards biotechnology such as nucleic acid and protein sequence searching, we utilize STN, PatSeq, NCBI-Blast similar and databases. We search nucleotide and amino acid sequences using multiple algorithms including BLAST, fragment and motif searching. With this searching we can provide results based on a percent identity of the sequence.
Here are a few of the patent technical areas we cover:
- Sequence Searching
- Genetics
- Recombinant DNA Technology
- Nanotechnology
- Immunology
