Patents

Patents provide monopoly protection to safeguard technological innovation, which are often the result of significant investment in research & development. The scope of patentable subject matter is vast, ranging from devices products and processes, through to formulations and compositions, information and communication technology, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, to business methods.

Patents give enterprise a sustainable competitive advantage not solely because Patents play a pivotal role in securing future returns on investment, but also because the strategic use of patents can generate new revenue streams and attract investment capital.

Patentability Advice

What you can get a patent for depends on what has been done before, and the subject matter of the invention. Your invention must be new, and it must involve an inventive step and it must differ in some way from existing technology for it to be potentially patentable.

Therefore, before spending time and money seeking patent protection, sometimes it can be a good idea to determine if an invention may even be patentable, or at least get an idea of what features of an invention may be patentable.

It's sometimes all a bit complicated, but we're here to help!

Patent Drafting, Filing & Prosecution

We can help you with drafting of new patent applications, the prosecution of patent applications to grant in Australia, New Zealand and overseas and the formulation of IP strategies and patent filing.

An effective patent strategy takes into account how new patent applications are drafted, where patent applications are filed and how patent applications are prosecuted to achieve granted patent rights. The objective is to secure the grant of patent rights that will be an important asset for your business and give you an advantage over your competitors.

Drafting a new patent application requires a detailed technical understanding of an invention and how it relates to what has been done before. At IP Solved, we pride ourselves on our highly qualified practitioners who will quickly get to understand your technology and make the drafting process easy.

A patent filing program involves commercial and practical considerations. Our practitioners are pragmatic and ask the right questions in order to understand your needs and expectations. We have extensive experience with patent filings all over the world and are well equipped to lay the foundations and then effectively manage for your patent portfolio.

Our practitioners have extensive experience representing clients before the Australian and New Zealand Patent Offices directly, and all over the world in consultation with our extensive overseas attorney networks. With this experience, we apply a commercially minded, tenacious and creative approach to patent prosecution, in order to achieve desired results and outcomes for you.

Patent Searches

When launching a new product on the market or when looking to file a patent application, a professional patent search provides a strong platform for informed decisions.

Organisations are using patent searching to monitor competitor patent activities, in order to better understand the competitive landscape in which they operate.

Knowing where and how to look for relevant technical, patent and business information when conducting a comprehensive patent search requires high level training and years of experience.
As an assurance of quality, all our searches are conducted by, or under the supervision of, an experienced patent attorney, often supplemented by the expertise of a professional patent searcher. Our Patent Intelligence Services group are experts on searching and analysing business-critical information.

Our search and analysis service offerings include:

• Prior art searches and analysis
• Freedom to operate searches and analysis
• Competitive intelligence
• Patent family and name searching
• Patent landscape searched and analysis

Prior Art Searching and Analysis

Prior art is either technical or patent information that may hinder the grant of a patent or invalidate a granted patent because it was published or available before the important priority date of the patent or patent application.

To evaluate whether a proposed invention is patentable, it is recommended that a prior art novelty search be conducted to identify potentially relevant prior art. If it is the strength of a granted patent that is under review, then a validity search will assist in making the assessment, and often prior art can be located that may render the relevant patent in question to be invalid.

Freedom To Operate Searching and Aanalysis

Freedom to operate searches and analysis can help an organisation in a number of ways. The knowledge obtained from a patent infringement search can help guide research and product development, and may direct development to areas that are most likely not to have impediments to the commercialisation of products, and which also may be fertile areas for development of your own patent rights.

Most importantly, a Freedom to Operate Assessment will ensure that new products or services being brought to market will not infringe patent rights owned by competitors, and will identify possible roadblocks to the safe commercialisation of a product.

Competitive Intelligence

Patent information is a key resource being used organisations to gain a clearer understanding of competitors and their future plans.

A profile of the patent activity of a company or an inventor obtained during a name search can be invaluable for gaining insight about a competitor’s business goals, as well as any recent change in its focus. Many technology related activities can be monitored by conducting subject specific watches for new patent applications filed in relation to a particular technology or by a particular organisation or person.

A status watch will alert when a patent application of interest is accepted to enable early considerations of whether to oppose a patent grant.

A patent landscape search or state of the art search will provide an overview of patents and published patent applications in a particular field to identify unexploited technological niches as well as potential collaborators, licensing targets or strategic business acquisitions. Without being exhaustive, this type of search is a cost effective way to identify threatening competitor patents and provides a basis to assess whether your own invention can be prosecuted using the patent system.

Patent Oppositions

In most jurisdictions, there is an option to oppose patent applications. This can be done pre-grant of the patent in some jurisdictions (like Australia), or post-grant in others.

The process and approach for patent oppositions varies greatly across different jurisdictions. In the Australian patent system, patent applications can be opposed after acceptance, and are an administrative process carried out before the Australian Patent Office (IP Australia). There is generally a need to lodge expert evidence to support or defend an opposition. Accordingly, Australian patent oppositions can be procedurally complex.

We have substantial experience of handling patent oppositions, and this enables us to guide you through the process from start to finish.

Patent Renewals

Each jurisdiction has its own unique renewal and maintenance schedule that must be adhered to and managed to protect the patent rights. The management of the renewals that are payable across your IP portfolio, is a long-term and on-going process, and can be relatively complex to administer, with potentially disastrous ramifications if the payment of a renewal fee is inadvertently missed.

We have a very experienced and talented Renewals Group that offers very cost competitive renewal services, and makes the process easy for you across all jurisdictions. You are in safe-hands.

Patent Litigation & Dispute Resolution

We help our clients to protect and extract commercial returns from these valuable business assets. We have extensive experience in pursuing and defending proceedings for infringement and invalidity.

Our technical and patent attorney expertise means we are able to provide you with integrated solutions in the management and protection of your patent rights.

We will work with your team of IP litigator solicitors and barristers in a multi-disciplinary team to achieve the best possible commercial results for you. This could mean adopting a robust and aggressive style or, alternatively, a conciliatory stance to achieve a commercially desirable settlement.