Search strategy
What AI patent search can and cannot do
Where AI-assisted patent search helps (breadth, citation trails, element-by-element mapping, speed) and where it stops: completeness, claims, judgment.
5 min read
Blog
Notes on patent research
Practical guides to claim charts, prior art, validity, freedom to operate and patent landscapes, written for the people who do the work.
Prior art and validity
Obviousness-type double patenting and terminal disclaimers
Statutory vs. obviousness-type double patenting, what a terminal disclaimer costs, the § 121 safe harbor, Cellect and PTA, and what to check in a family.
6 min read
Search strategy
Patent acquisition screening: value, availability and fit
Screen patents to buy or license by keeping value, availability and fit apart, then check title, maintenance, terminal disclaimers and encumbrances.
5 min read
Landscapes and portfolios
How to analyze a competitor's patent portfolio
A step-by-step method: gather holdings under every name, group them by technology, read trends net of publication lag, and report share of the field.
5 min read
Landscapes and portfolios
White space analysis: finding gaps in a patent field
How to measure filing density, why a quiet area can be an opportunity or a dead end, and a step-by-step method for testing a gap before you file.
5 min read
Landscapes and portfolios
Patent families: continuations, divisionals and CIPs
How US continuations, divisionals and CIPs relate to a parent, how foreign priority builds international families, and why families matter for FTO.
6 min read
Prior art and validity
Inter partes review: what a PTAB history tells you
How inter partes review works (grounds, deadlines, burden of proof, estoppel) and how to read a patent's PTAB history before licensing, suing or buying.
7 min read
Search strategy
When does a US patent expire? How to work it out
How to work out a US utility patent's expiry date: the 20-year term, priority claims, PTA, terminal disclaimers, maintenance fees and extensions.
7 min read
Search strategy
A freedom-to-operate checklist before a product launch
Eleven steps for an FTO review before launch: scope the product and markets, filter patents by status, read the claims and decide on each risk.
6 min read
Claims and infringement
Means-plus-function claims: spotting § 112(f)
How to tell when a claim limitation falls under § 112(f), what corresponding structure means for software claims, and how to chart such a limitation.
6 min read
Landscapes and portfolios
Why recent patent filing trends look like a decline
Applications publish about 18 months after priority, so the last two or three years of any filing chart are incomplete. How to spot it and correct for it.
5 min read
Landscapes and portfolios
How to read a patent landscape report
What each section of a patent landscape report shows, how to check its clusters, assignee names and filing trends, and what to ask before acting on it.
6 min read
Claims and infringement
Claim construction: Phillips vs. BRI standards compared
How Phillips and broadest reasonable interpretation differ, where each applies in court, examination and the PTAB, and how to build a construction.
6 min read
Claims and infringement
The doctrine of equivalents, explained
How the doctrine of equivalents works in US patent law, the tests courts use, the limits that stop it, and how to record it in a claim chart.
6 min read
Prior art and validity
Non-patent literature: prior art that isn't a patent
What counts as a printed publication, the main types of non-patent literature, how to date it, and why it decides what can be argued at the PTAB.
6 min read
Prior art and validity
Anticipation vs. obviousness: §102 and §103 in practice
How anticipation and obviousness differ, what each requires under Net MoneyIN, Graham and KSR, and a worked example on claim 1 of US 6,285,999.
7 min read
Prior art and validity
Prior-art search beyond keywords: six strategies
Six ways to find prior art that keyword searches miss, from citation chains and foreign family members to period vocabulary, and how to close gaps.
6 min read
Search strategy
FTO, patentability and validity searches compared
What freedom-to-operate, patentability and validity searches each ask, which documents and dates count, who runs them, and the usual mistakes.
6 min read
Claims and infringement
How to break a patent claim into limitations
A step-by-step method for splitting a patent claim into labelled limitations, worked through on claim 1 of the expired 1-Click patent, US 5,960,411.
7 min read
Claims and infringement
How to read an element-by-element claim chart
What each column of a claim chart tells you, how to judge the evidence in each row, and what a partial finding means before you rely on one.
7 min read
Try it on one of your patents
The fastest way to evaluate One Transform is to run a search on a patent you already know well.