The Critical Role of Invalidity Search in Modern Patent Disputes Today
In patent cases in the USA, it is a seemingly simple question that is often the question at hand: was the invention truly novel at the time of the patent? An invalidity search is a search that assists the legal team and the IP team to answer that question by searching for earlier patents, publications, technical papers, products, and more that may invalidate a patent claim. A good search is not a search for something old. The work is in actually finding something that is materially prior art to the particular claim, knowing when it was published, and whether it has something to offer in terms of a viable legal argument. A Patent Claim Is the Starting Point Patent searching is much more effective when the inventor's claims are used to start the search, rather than the subject of the invention. A patent can contain dozens of technical concepts, but only some of them might be relevant in a patent dispute. An independent claim can be divided into its different critical limitations and...