Grant of a patent does not guarantee validity, since there is always a possibility of some prior-art not yet found which could potentially invalidate the patent.

1. Sagacious IP
Service Line: Invalidity Search
What is Invalidity Search?
Grant of a patent does not guarantee validity, since there is always a possibility of some prior-
art not yet found which could potentially invalidate the patent. An invalidity or opposition
search is conducted to identify such patent and non-patent documents which may impact the
claims of a specific patent. This can help block patents to counter an infringement suit or
establish solidity of a patent portfolio which may be useful for licensing or company acquisition.
To challenge validity of a patent, the prior art could be anything which has been made available
to the public anywhere in the world, before the filing date or the priority date of the application
claiming the invention.
Invalidation Search is usually conducted when
• You are sued for patent infringement or receive a patent infringement warning,
• A freedom to operate search or patent watching services finds a patent upon which
your product might infringe,
• You plan for patent enforcement and sue or send a warning to your competitor (in this
case, the search will be a validity search for your patent),
• You are required to prove value of your patent portfolio prior to licensing agreement
Invalidity searches can be extremely tedious and time consuming. With other types of patent
searches, it is generally enough to initially review patent documents by titles, abstracts,
indexing, and figures. However with invalidity searches, it becomes imperative to evaluate and
characterize details of any prior-art document which seems relevant to the patents/claims to be
invalidated. Many-a-times, a relevant prior-art is not found quickly, and this could drag on the
search. It only occurs occasionally that the tedious evaluation process lead to relevant findings
which could be used for invalidating the patent.