The Gatherer - Volume 9

“ The search results may speed up prosecution of a patent as the claims may be configured to take into account the prior art thereby reducing preparation and prosecution costs for those seeking patent protection. ”

Patent searchers can also conduct patent mapping and patent landscape exercises to better understand the direction that individual competitors and/or entire industries are headed. These are complex searches and can provide immense strategic value. The risk of infringing third party patents is reduced Knowing the expiration date of patents is important mainly for strategic reasons: a patent going into the public domain, in fact, means that everyone can freely practice the technology once protected by it. This opens up a wealth of possibilities for companies operating in the same market space: estimating correctly when a specific technology would become available enables them to better plan product launches and market entrance. Lastly, one of the most important and difficult aspects of patent searching is conducting a freedom to operate (FTO) search. If you are looking to develop or release a new product,

The search results may speed up prosecution of a patent as the claims may be configured to take into account the prior art thereby reducing preparation and prosecution costs for those seeking patent protection. A better understanding of the most cost-effective approach for building and protecting IP is developed Patent searches can be used to gain insights into future competitor product launches; determining which countries are being considered for manufacturing or marketing products. This provides insight into how relatively important the competitor believes one technology to be with respect to others in its portfolio. Patent data platforms have developed tools which allows patent searchers opportunities as well as keeping up to date with your major competitors activities. This is an underutilised and valuable tool to help with strategic decision making. to identify potential licensing, partnerships or collaboration

it is important to ascertain whether it would be open to a claim for infringement of intellectual property rights from a third party. If the search does not locate any relevant in-force patents within your target market, then you are said to have “freedom- to-operate”. FTOs can also provide insight into what your competitors are working on and allow you to anticipate and make early decisions to tackle their latest innovations. Patent searching is not just about finding prior art. It’s a tool which can explore publicly available information and can immensely benefit companies from start up to multinationals. Clear interpretation of the data and the ability to extract the information allows for a better understanding of a corporate enterprise’s innovations in relation to the competitive landscape.

Disrupt your market - the intelligent way.

Aperture Insight is a market leader, providing dependable intelligence to its clients locally and globally – arming them with the best possible knowledge to strategically manage their intellectual property.

You invest a lot of resources into your intellectual property and deserve the best results. Aperture Insight combines unmatched expertise with use of the world’s best databases and content to deliver superior search results that you can count on. We deliver solutions that help innovation to flourish across the IP lifecycle: - Patent, design and trade mark searching and analytics - Competitor landscape intelligence - Litigation support.

LOUISA KING Director at Aperture Insight

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