As the name suggests, an invalidity search seeks to either invalidate the claims of the competitors’ patents or validate the claims of one’s own patents. By investigating thoroughly, it becomes easy to uncover any prior art that may have been missed by the patent examiner.
The issuance of any patent automatically entails performing an invalidity search to challenge the claims in question. This works to scrutinise and strengthen the claims of one’s own patent portfolio as well as build defence strategies if faced by any infringement allegations. Besides empowering with legal strength, an invalidity search actively explores patent and non-patent documents to unravel any salient points that may negatively impact the claims of specific patents. The repercussions of this impact include any challenges posed to the novelty or non-obvious criteria of claims.

The palpable merit in conducting such clearance searches is the opportunities it presents to block any competing patents to solidify one’s own portfolio and further examine licensing or acquisition options.

The search adopts a multitude of practices to invalidate claims against restrictions like those of date, jurisdiction, document type, prior citations, and language to state a few. The presence of expansive electronic databases and search engines have made it possible to also look for previously unavailable old patent literature which can form the basis of invalidation, rather than focusing only on current information regarding prior art.

Our search services guarantee to help sustain the market position of our clients and assist in risk-free product launches by means of third-party patent invalidation and preparation of defensive documents to counteract any infringement lawsuits. We help abate potential infringement risks by ascertaining competitor claims as invalid thereby granting our clients with enhanced bargaining power.