A study on prior art for patenting a technology is of great importance, in many respects. 1) It is a standard to judge the registrability of invention, and from that we can determine how to prepare the configuration of claims and patent document. 2) It provides evidence to judge chances of invalidation of registered patent as to patent dispute and patent valuation. 3) It presents the direction of research about technology of the future that a company must head for, by understanding the trends of related technologies.
Sarang IP Law Firm investigates prior technology as the following options:
Step1. A Study on Patent DB Published in the Nation
The first thing to be done is to visit KIPRIS (Korea Institute of Patent Information) and investigate prior patent DB that have been published in the nation. The Korean patent application ranks 3rd in the world, so we can get most prior patent from the nations’ DB.Step2. A Study on Overseas search through Google Patent.
Astonishing as it seems, Google provides patent DB of major countries with English translation versions and histories of each patent application. Also, Google Chrome provides easy translation functions, which are of great help to understand inventions, rapidly. This is good enough to get the prior art data for registration.Step3. A Study on Patent DB of Overseas Patent Office
Patent DB of some countries such as China, Germany, Japan and more, cannot, sometimes, be provided properly for the reason of a problem with translation. If the study of Step 2 would not be much enough, individual search are being investigated, with DB of patent offices respectively in major countries. In the case of countries such as China which witnesses a plethora of patent applications and low reliability of DB, a special patent search program that private enterprises provide can be used.Step4. Additional Study on Patent of Outsourcing Companies
An additional study could be conducted, sometimes, through the specialized patent search company like WIPS, in order to get authenticity of the outcome of search. There is no big difference in an outcome of search to above. However, a report of search outcome of WIPS, which is a patent prosecution outsourcing company of Korean Patent office, is, sometimes, helpful. Therefore, it is good to utilize it. Search of prior patent requires highly specialized professionalism and time. It is important to invest time in preparing a search query and searching through DB, as much as possible. But, reviewing every document about candidates of searched prior technologies and understanding the key points of invention, at the same time are necessary. The success rate of registration and judgment is determined by how much a study on prior art is being conducted. Sarang IP Law Firm possess know-how through numerous experiences. Don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll roll up our sleeves to help you.
