Patent And Prior Art Fundamentals

By Author: Jason Benson
Total Articles: 4
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What is Prior Art

Prior art is one of the key concepts in patent applications and litigation. Prior art encompasses all data that has been mentioned to the public, in any form, anywhere in the world, regarding an invention before a given date, usually the filing date of a particular patent. Prior art contains not only earlier patents, but also any other published materials, including scientific papers (in patent jargon, any publications unearthed in a previous art search that aren’t patents are called non-patent literature or NPL).

In the event that an innovation was described in prior art, a patent on that invention is not valid. Therefore, patent products must include relevant prior art and confirm that art would not apply directly to the pending innovation. Likewise, somebody seeking to prove that a specific patent is broken, can do so by finding prior art -- a mention of the invention in every publication -- from before the patent was filed.

What are the forms of Prior Art Searches

Prior art searches are undertaken for a number of reasons. Here are the main types
Patentability|Novelty ...
... A search conducted to determine if an innovation is novel and, therefore, patentable. These searches make an effort to determine if key elements of an new technology have previously been experienced in any publication. They are generally performed whenever an inventor or company is deciding to apply for a patent and by patent office personnel reviewing patent applications.

Validity A search conducted after a patent has been issued to ascertain whether or not the patent workplace overlooked current prior art, which may invalidate the patent. These queries are conducted by entities accused of infringing on a patent (if they how the patent invalid, there is nothing to infringe on) or by entities with a financial risk in a patent (contemplating buying or licensing it).

Clearance or Freedom to Operate A search of issued patents to determine if an idea infringes on virtually any patents. If it does, the inventor may make an effort to invalidate those patents, design a work-around or even abandon the idea. Also, a clearance|freedom to operate search may expose that an idea is covered by patents in certain countries, but not others, and enable an inventor to act accordingly.

State of the Art An investigation that aims to set up the overall “state of the art” for a specific invention or field, such as patents and non-patent books. Generally, companies perform these kind of searches to understand the current situation in a given field and their place within it. They can identify the latest technology, see what competitors are doing and create their plan for moving on.

Patent Landscape These types of searches are detailed analyses of all the patents related to a certain technological innovation. They generally commence with a state of the art look up to find the appropriate patents and then incorporate further evaluation of the patents involved. Patent landscape searches generally include graphical representation of information about the patents.