The sections below provide some more details pertaining to each service presented under ‘Prior Art Searching Support’ head. Please also scroll to the bottom of the page to look at the databases we use for conducting these searches.
Novelty & Patentability Searches
Patentability Searches are conducted to determine if a particular invention meets the patentability criteria in terms of novelty and non-obviousness. These searches involve identifying patent and non-patent literature disclosing the features of the particular invention.
Such searches are, generally, conducted before incurring any cost into drafting, filing and prosecution of a patent encompassing any invention. These searches are also known as Protectability analysis, Novelty Search, Pre-examination Search, etc.
Validity Searches
A validity search involves conducting a patent and non-patent literature search to identify prior art literature that might affect the validity of a granted patent.
Such studies are, generally, conducted
» To verify whether a patent, which one might be accused of infringing, is valid or not, OR
» To check the validity of a competitor’s patent deemed strong, OR
» To check the strength of one’s own patent These searches are alternatively known as Invalidity/invalidation search, Opposition searches, Patent Strength Assessment Searches, etc.
Freedom-to-Operate Study
Freedom-to-operate studies help in identifying whether a product may possibly infringe on a patent. Before the launch of a product in any jurisdiction, companies get a Freedom-to-Operate search conducted, for all the features of the product, to avoid any legal hassles of infringement after the launch.
In a Freedom-to-Operate study, a search is conducted to identify active and pending patent rights in all the countries of interest. The search is also known as Freedom to Practice Search, Right to use, Clearance Search, Domination Analysis, Infringement possibility Analysis, etc.
Bio-sequence and Chemical Structure Search
Sagacious has unmatched capabilities and experience of conducting bio-sequence (both Nucleotide and Proteins) searches. Sagacious in the past has conducted all type of prior art searches (patentability, freedom-to-operate and validity) that involved bio-sequences of varied length and complexity.
Databases
Following is the list of databases that we generally use for conducting prior-art searches mentioned above.
Patent Databases
MicroPatent, Delphion, Thomson Innovation, DWPI, PatBase, IPOS (for Singapore patents), Ekaswa (For Indian patents), databases hosted on STN and any other database as per client’s requirements.
Non-Patent Databases
ACM, IEEE, Google Scholar, SAE, PubMed, Scirus, ScienceDirect, Thompson Innovation, databases hosted on STN, and any other database as per client’s requirements.
Specialized Databases
Sequence Searches
The major databases used by Sagacious for conducting such searches include.
Patented Sequences
GenomeQuest, Registry/Dgene/USGENE/PCTGEN via STN, and other free databases like Patome, PatentLens, etc.
Non-patent sequences
GenomeQuest, Registry/Dgene via STN, and other free databases like NCBI, etc.
Bibliographic Data Sources
The major databases used to obtain latest bibliographic data about patents
USPTO PAIR, EPO Register Plus, USPTO Assignment Database, databases hosted on STN, etc.
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