Inventions and utility models

Patent on invention

Patent on utility model

Patent research

Russian and Eurasian foreign application

Patent research 

Patent research, if carried out correctly and in time, allows evaluating whether or not it is reasonable to create, produce, improve, implement, use, repair, or discard equipment assets, to show the most promising path of development, define the list of countries for patenting and implementation, reveal patent risks, assess investments into development for viability.

 

Besides, patent research is an obligatory component of scientific research and development work.

 

Patent research is necessary

  • to assess patentability of industrial property assets to be created in a process of new product development;
  • to make a decision on patent application viability;
  • to create conditions for seamless sales of industrial products on markets in particular countries to exclude infringement of rights belonging to third parties possessing patents acting on the territory of those countries (see the chapter “What is FTO?”);
  • to find potential competitors and define their activity field;
  • to define one’s market share.

 

“Patent-law firm “NEVA-PATENT” Ltd. carries out all types of patent research, including:

 

– research of technical level – assessing, based on patent information related to state of art in connection with the asset under development, as a waypoint to select the direction for further development, to assess matching the asset under development to patentability criteria, with revealing and selection of the most efficient research and development achievements out of the latest achievements etc.;

 

– analysis of trends in technologies development – time scheduling and defining the directions for development of the particular kind of technology, to be determined by direct improvement of a particular feature of technological item;

 

– assessing patentability – verification of the technological item for matching patentability criteria as specified by Articles 1350, 1351 and 1352 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation;

 

– FTO search – assessing of the possibility to use a technological item (a machine, a device, equipment, materials, technological processes etc.) in a particular country without infringing the rights related to previously issued currently valid patents for inventions, utility models, or rights in connection with other industrial property assets (such as industrial designs, trademarks);

 

– patent risk assessment – assessing the risks of weak legal protection in connection with poor quality of application materials, risks of refusals in connection with patent issuing in connection with mismatch between technical solutions and patentability criteria, or in connection with poor disclosure of technical solutions claimed;

 

– revealing the ways to develop a technical solution to match the patentability criteria – search for patent and other information to determine the volume of previously published data related to the technology researched and revealing the features, having improved which, it may be possible to make the technical solution matching patentability criteria;

 

– revealing the ways to develop a technical solution that is not covered by valid patents – research of the volume of patent legal protection valid on the territory of a particular country and revealing the features, having improved which, it may be possible to grant the Customer the possibility to seamlessly implement the technical solution on the territory of the country;

 

– search for options to nullify the protecting document – conduction of work to assess the possibility to prove a mismatch between the technical solution as protected by the patent issued, and the patentability criteria;

 

– any other types of research, as it may be required to achieve the Customer’s goals.

 

The procedure of patent research is defined by the state standard GOST 15.011-96 “Patent search. Procedure and Scope”, which defines uniform requirements for organization, conduction and formulation of the results of patent research.

 

If required, the patent research report is formulated strictly in accordance with the state standard requirements.

 

The patent research process, according to GOST, includes the following stages:

  • formulation of a task to carry out patent research;
  • formulation of patent information search schedule;
  • search for and selection of patent and other research and development information;
  • analysis of the collected information.

 

The cost and the time schedule of patent research are calculated individually.

 

What is FTO (freedom-to-operate)?

 

Patent research may include patent infringement check. Freedom to operate is a term that means a possibility to use a technological item (a machine, a device, equipment, materials, technological processes etc.) in a particular country without infringing the rights related to previously issued currently valid patents for inventions, utility models, or rights in connection with other industrial property assets (such as industrial designs, trademarks).

 

The FTO requirements are only defined in connection with particular countries and for a particular date. This fully results from territorial and temporal patent validity.