PATENT LITIGATION SERVICES
- Patent (In)Validity Analysis
An invalidity search is conducted to invalidate a specific patent on grounds of novelty. It is an effort from our end to figure out every possible prior art that was missed during the Examination by the Patent Office.
A search for any document or evidence of use of the patented invention before the first effective filing date of the subject patent is conducted. In case you have been sued for infringing a patent, you may use Invalidity search as a tool to try and invalidate that patent.
The Invalidity search is mostly ordered by defendants because if they can invalidate the plaintiff’s patent, with previously existing prior art(s) the patent can be considered invalid and cannot stop others from selling or manufacturing the technology in dispute. Plaintiff’s or patent owners can also conduct the validity search for their own patent as a part of due diligence exercise to know the strength of their own patent.
A validity Search can also confirm your patent claims and potentially increase the fees you charge for licensing your technology.
When a client plans to license, buy, sell or assert a patent, they request for a patent Validity search to ensure the enforceability of the patent under consideration. Our Validity reports help our clients in taking informed decisions and negotiations.
- Infringement Studies
Infringement analysis is done to ascertain whether a process or product infringes upon a patent claim. Our infringement analysis reports include a thorough analysis based on the legal principles of literal infringement and infringement based on doctrine of equivalence.
A product or process may infringe a patent claim under literal infringement or doctrine of equivalence. Under the principle of literal infringement, a claim is infringed if every element of the claim is found in the accused product or process. Under doctrine of equivalence, a claim is infringed if the accused product or process performs substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain the same result as that of the patented product or process, even when there is no literal infringement.
- Claim Chart Preparation
The team at SNF has extensive experience in creating Evidence of Use Charts (Claim Charts). We customize charts as per client’s requirements. When a custom work is required, we often apply multiple analysis techniques in order to generate high quality claim charts. Claim chart construction involves detailed mapping of patent claims with the identified literature (patent, product or other literature) in question. Claim charts are typically used by attorneys and in-house counsels to determine validity of claims, scope of infringement and taking licensing-related decisions. We perform detailed analysis of patent claims and provide easy to understand reports with textual and graphical comparison along with claim enablement depicting the extent of overlap between the claim and the literature.
