Invalidation Analysis

Has your competitor been granted a patent that stands in the way of your business or is there a reason to suspect that the patent should not have been granted in the first place?

Patents are only issued after a thorough examination of the preceding patent application, where it is assessed whether the patent application meets the requirements for patentability, for example whether the invention applied for is new and inventive in light of already published material (prior art).

But the assessment of whether the requirements for a patent have been met may have been based on an incomplete search for prior art, and in some cases one may also question the conclusions in the processing of the application. This is why most patent offices have procedures for challenging issued patents.

With an invalidation analysis, you can get Patentgruppen’s assessment of whether a patent seems valid and, if so, how strong a right the patent confers.

The result of an invalidation analysis can therefore be important, as it may help you in deciding how to deal with a given patent.

Do you, for example, have to work around a patent? Would it be a good idea to try an negotiate a license agreement? Or, is the patent worth filing an opposition against?