ABSTRACT
A country without a patent office and good patent laws was just a crab and couldn’t travel anyway but sideways or backwards.
Mark Twain
2.1 Introduction 18 2.2 Types of Prior Art Documents 21 2.3 –e Priority Date 22 2.4 Prior Art Events 25
2.4.1 35 USC §102(a) 26 2.4.2 35 USC §102(b) 26 2.4.3 35 USC §102(c) 28 2.4.4 35 USC §102(d) 28 2.4.5 35 USC §102(e) 28
2.5 Prior Art Search Techniques 29 2.5.1 Patent Search Methods 29 2.5.2 Techniques to Optimize a Patent Search 32 2.5.3 Patent Search Databases 35
2.6 Types of Patent Searches 41 2.6.1 Patentability 42 2.6.2 Infringement 42 2.6.3 Clearance 43 2.6.4 Validity/Invalidity 43
2.7 Conclusions 43 Acknowledgment 44
–is chapter teaches an effective approach for scoping a patent search. It reviews the different types of searches, highlights criteria and methods for determining the relevancy of prior art references, discusses the important sections of a patent for determining relevancy, and outlines the benefits of classification, text, and citation searching.
