L2, Patents & immaterial rights 1 Flashcards

1
Q

what is a patent

A

Purpose:
A negative right
—> preventing others from using the same technology
—> balance industrial control with public exposure

Subject:
2. process, material, func

Duration:
— 20 years

Creation:?

PROS:
— fairly strong IPR

CONS:
— expensive (annual fees, costly to file)
— Difficult to understand
— still difficult in court???

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2
Q

Describe the anatomy of a patent!

A

In general they look the same and have the same structure.

  1. Title
    — don’t focus too much on the title
    — only rough description, see if you’re in the right field
  2. Inventors
    — co
  3. Assignee
    — company owning the company
    — the original filer will be here
  4. Filing date
    — date when the patent is filed
    — priority date —> wh
  5. Classificatiton
    — specific classification codes for different types of patents e.g. electronics
  6. BAckward citations
    — a kind of a “reference list”
    — reference back to other innovations
  7. Patentnummer
    — every patent has a unique patent number
  8. Abstract
    — summary of the invention
  9. Drawings
  10. Background t he invention
  11. Description of prior art
    — what is driving the patent?

Claims
— listed towards the end
— list of what is actually protected in the patent
— only what is in the claims is protected by the patent

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3
Q

Different types of patent searches and analysis purposes

A
  1. validity search
    —> find prior art which individually or collectively will affect the validity of a pending or granted patent
  2. Patentability search
    —> find prior art which individually or collectively will affect the patentability of an innovation
  3. Freedom to operate or clearance search
    —> find force patents which individually could be infringed by a product/technology
  4. Patent landscape search
    — For learning and decision-making support
    — More to determine trends, surroundings, leading actors etc.
    — Good starting point
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4
Q

Patent search strategies: different ways of conducting patent searches

A
  1. Keyword search
    — structure, function, utiliticy etc
    — risk of getting a “blurry search”
  2. Assignee search
    — to see what a company
  3. Classification search
    — can be very useful when you know what technology area you’re looking for
    — good as a startingpoint during search
  4. Citation search
    — a way to find other relevant areas.
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5
Q

Searching for patent information

A

Search stages:
1. Plan your search
2. Set the scopes with boundaries and goals of the search
3. Design
— Define search strategies to get relevant data (keyword search or assignee search? etc)
4. Execute:
— Execute searches to collect and sort relevant data

ITERATE

  1. Analyze collected an sorted data to reach goals
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6
Q

Setting scope?

A

Setting the scope

  1. what context will be the basis of your search?
  2. what questions will you answer in relation to the context?
  3. What questions are feasible to answer?
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7
Q

sticking to scope?

A
  1. when do you stop?

2. why do you stop?

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8
Q

Designing the patent search: combining search strategies

A
  1. Identify relevant classes
    — Conduct initial search to find relevant patents and extract IPCs/CPC:s OR
    — keyword searching/ browsing relevant IPCs/CPCs
  2. Identify relevant assignees
    — Conduct initial search to find relevant patents and extract assignees
    — identify relevant assignees from e.g. market analysis
  3. Identify relevant keywords
    — find keywords for limiting result set
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9
Q

Different classifications systems?

A

USPC
— used in the US
— uses several methods to classify

IPC
— used world wide i.e. large coverage
— Different versions available

CPC
— widest search
— launched in 2013
— a common internationally compatible classification system
— extension of IPC bur more precise
— created by EPO and USPTO, based on ECLA

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10
Q

What system to choose?

A
  1. focus on IPC and CPC in Esp@cenet

2. There are US-to-CPC converters online if you have the code

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11
Q

Potential pitfalls in relations to classification searches

A

Don’t be to narrow when considering the patent classifications
—> the same patent/ patent family can have different classifications
—> don’t rely on one patent class

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12
Q

Idenfify relevant assignees?

A

Sources for findning relevant assignees:

  1. reviewing small set of relevant patents found from initial search
  2. market and research field analysis
  3. actors mentioned by interviewees
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13
Q

How to think about in terms of assignees?

A
  1. investigate possible nme changes
  2. subsidaries and jpint ventures
  3. acquisitions and divestments
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14
Q

Process of finding relevant keywords?

A
  1. Question regarding subject matter
    — what problem does the invention solve? (utility)
    — what is the invention? (structure)
    — what does the invention do? (technical functions)
  2. Answer to subject matter questions: E.G:
    — high-speed police chases are dangerous to society
    — a control module, a transmitter, a receiver and at least one switch
    — Remotely disables a car in motion by cutting off the fuel supply and ignition
  3. keywords definitions from answers
    — Police, cop, law enforces, chase, pursuit
    — control, module, transmitter, transceiver, receiver, switch, relay
    — remote, disable, car, vehicle, cutting, discon, fuel, gas, ignition
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15
Q

building queries using operators?

A
  1. USE boolean operators
    —> AND
    —> OR
    —>NOT
  2. USE parenthesis
    —> avoid too many parenthesis
3. use proximity operators (more soft than the boolean operators e.g. which is not so specific)
— adj
— near (near5 is 5 words apart)
— with
— same
  1. USE truncation operators
    — ?, * osv
    — use asteerix at the end when searching for class if unsure of the ending of the class, which is very difficult to know

EXAMPLE SEARCH STRING
(Police OR COP) AND (chase OR purse) AND (remote SAME disable) SAME ((cut OR discon*) NEAR5 (fuel OR petrol OR gas OR ignition))

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16
Q

How do you search effectively?

A
  1. proper documentation
    — create document to capture findings
    — allign structure to the questions of your analysis
  2. save the analysis for the analysis stage
    — avoid analyzing what you’re seeing when you do it, just finish your search
  3. when to take a step back in the process?
    — if you can’t find anything remotely similar
    — if results are too many
17
Q

what parts of the patents are appropriate to read?

A
1. Title
—> find potentially relevant docmens
2. Abstract
—> get a general sense of relevance
3. Look at description: (not too much) 
—> it reveals full detail about relevance
4. Claims
—> ultimately determine scope relevance
5. drawings
—> assist in interpreting relevance

Usually nooooo need of reading everything. focus on:
—> title
—> background/ prior art
—> summary of invention

investigate relevant patents closely - check file history
—> US Public PAIR
— EPO Register

18
Q

Tools for patent search

A
1. Esp@cenet
—> easy to use
—> multiple countries
—> some data export functions
—> keyword limitation
—> EPO Register is a powerful resource for detailed analysis
  1. USPTO
    —> Only US patents
    —> limited data export functionality
    —> USPTO PAIR and patent assignment are very useful resource for detailed analyses
  2. Google patents
    —> quick and easy tool
    —> not as structured or the other alternatives
    —> no data export
  3. Derwent innovation index
    —> the most professional tool
    —> most analysis rich tool

Also check out patent inspiration, intellogist, cluster pat, patexia

Buss net?

19
Q

Tips for setting the scope?

A
  1. Devide scope into separate searches
  2. Start with a limited scope and expand
  3. Capture the scope and goals in writing — reality check and checklist
20
Q

Strategy for finding suitable classes?

A
  1. Review a small set of related patents for suitable classes
  2. Using commercial search tools, make an initial broad search and determine “Top IPC”
  3. Look at what classes/keywords the examiner searched for in the search report of related patents
    — US Public PAIR
    — EPO Register
  4. Keyword searching in the classification index
21
Q

Tips for finding relevant assignees?

A
  1. Assignee changes: USTPO PAIR and EPO Register
  2. Subsidiaries: 10-K filings and annual reports
  3. Co-assignees and citations are usually interesting to look at
22
Q

what should be documented during search?

A

Document during search

  1. IPC classes an keywords used
  2. Save search strings
  3. hits from each search
  4. cathegorization/tagging information for each hit, e.g. technical area or subject matter feature