ExpertLancing assists clients to assess the value of their portfolio by identifying possible licensing opportunities. The focus of the infringement search is to assist our clients in identifying valuable patents in the patent portfolio that can yield hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. Our infringement reports highlight, with a high degree of certainty, products that potentially infringe on granted patents in the portfolio. Each potential infringing product is accompanied by an infringement level ranking score, based on its mapping against a claim or claims. Each patent in the patent portfolio analyzed during the infringement search shall be scored based on quantitative and qualitative parameters suggestive of the patent’s strength and product readability.
Infringement search & analysis for a patent is conducted in four steps:
- Quantitative analysis: Quantitative analysis involves scoring each patent in a portfolio based on quantitative parameters, such as forward citation, number of independent claims, claim length, etc. Thus, enabling the identification of key patents from a large portfolio(s) based on the patent’s bibliographic details.
- Qualitative Analysis: Qualitative analysis involves scoring each patent based on manual screening and assessment from Subject matter experts. The qualitative parameters considered during the analysis are readability of claim(s) on a product/service features, broadness of patent claims, specifications enablement, number of alive members in the patent family, number of office action responses, market segment, and size, etc.
- Product Listing: The output of the search is a list of potential Infringing Products for each patent shortlisted from using the Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis. The search methodology involves identifying leading players in the technology space and conducting searches on company/OEMs websites, 3rd party subscriptions, and various databases. The relevant products/literature are identified and further analyzed by referring to catalogs, manuals, datasheets, white papers, product brochures, etc.
- Evidence of Use Preparation: Our EoUs (Claim charts) assist clients to map key features of the claim(s) to product specifications and create evidence that potentially proves infringement. The evidence of potential infringement is produced using various literature, such as catalogs, manuals, datasheets, white papers, product brochures, etc. We also perform product testing, if required, to ascertain infringement. Another critical approach undertaken is to check if any of the latest standards incorporate the features of the patent. We have experience working on different standards including IEEE 802, 3GPP, LTE, etc.
- We also identify the potential targets for in-licensing and out-licensing of patents. To explore out-licensing targets, products are analyzed to ascertain if they infringe on clients’ patent claims. When launching a product, patents can be identified based on the product feature to assist the client to take appropriate business decisions, such as initiating design-around activities, considering in-licensing options, or even considering invalidating the patent in question.
In-licensing activity -> Product Launch ->Check for Threat Patents -> Design Activities OR In-Licensing
Out-licensing -> Patent Portfolio -> Potential Target Product Listing -> Evidence-Of-Use
We conduct infringement searches in diverse technology domains including electronics and communication, computer science, information technology, automobiles and mechanical technologies, chemical technologies, biotechnology, bio-medical equipment, and life sciences. ExpertLancing team has experience of working on different standards including IEEE 802, 3GPP, LTE, etc.