September 30, 2019

TAPI-DOST

Prior Art Search: Definition

and Approaches

Jerry C. Serapion
Philippine Rice Research Institute
Maligaya, Muñoz, Nueva Ecija
Philippines
jeesup9@yahoo.com
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 Invention Spotting
© 2013-2015 by Caezar Angelito E. Arceo
cangear@yahoo.com | http://ph.linkedin.com/in/cangear |
http://www.slideshare.net/cangear
Prepared and used for the IPOPHL’s ITSO network, in particular, “ Writeshop
for the Preparation of Patent Applications” organized by IPOPHL and
STRIDE, Iloilo City, 20-23 October 2015
technical
Special

feature
Prior
art
 Prior art

• IPC Sec. 24.1. Everything which has been

made available to the public anywhere in
the world, before the filing date or the
priority date of the application claiming the
invention

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 Prior art, IPC
• and 24.2. The whole contents of an
application for a patent, utility model, or
industrial design registration, filed or
effective in the Philippines, with a filing or
priority date that is earlier than the filing or
priority date of the application: …
Provided, That the applicant or the
inventor identified in both applications are
not one and the same.
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 Types of Searches
• State of the Art Search
• Patentability Search
• Validity Searches
• Name Searches
• Technological Activity Searches

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 Types of Searches
• Infringement Searches
• Patent Family/ Equivalent Searches
• Legal Status Searches

Search procedures are crafted accordingly

for each type of search

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 patentability search

• A search of patent and other literatures to

establish whether an invention will be
capable of becoming patented.

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 Patent searching
• is an art ... ... which is practiced by
• applying common sense,
• a working knowledge of patent laws,
• familiarity with the technology and
• familiarity with the databases and classification
of document sources.
The order of these elements shifts depending on
the search subject.

• © Prior Art searches Inc., Arlington VA, USA

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 Sources of prior art

• Patent information
• Journals, Publications, books, magazines
• Google.com, Yahoo.com, Wikipedia.org
• Etc.

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Internet Websites
www.ipophil.gov.ph
Intellectual Property Office, Philippines (IPO)
www.wipo.int
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
www.uspto.gov
United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO)
www.european-patent-office.org
European Patent Office (EPO)
cipo.gc.ca
Canada Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)
www.kipo.go.kr
Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO)
www.ipos.gov.sg
Singapore Registry of Trademarks & Patents (IPOS)
www.jpo.go.jp
Japan Patent Office (JPO)
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 Internet
Patent database
Websites
Keyword shortcut
www.ipophil.gov.ph Type “ipophil patent search” at
Intellectual Property Office, google
Philippines (IPO)

www.wipo.int Type “patentscope patent search”

World Intellectual Property at google
Organization (WIPO)

www.uspto.gov Type “USPTO patent search” at

United States Patent & google
Trademark Office (USPTO)

www.european-patent- Type “espacenet advanced

office.org search” at google
European Patent Office (EPO)
Type “GOOGLE PATENTS” in
GOOGLE PATENTS google
• Important data essential in patent
search:
Title and/or Patent Number
Abstract
Inventor
Assignee
Priority Data
IPC
Keywords and synonyms
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 A patent document as a source of
information contains…..

• bibliographic,
• technical,
• and legal information

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Bibliographic Information
• Patent Number
• Issued Date
• Application Number
• Filing Date
• IPC (International Patent Classification)
• Priority Data
• Applicant/Assignee
• Inventor(s)
• Fields of Search

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Bibliographic Information…
• References as considered/cited
• Representative (s)
• Title
• Abstract
• Number of Claim (s)
• Number of drawing (s)
• Number of pages of the Specification and Claim (s)
• Drawing (s) to be published in the Official Gazette
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 Classification
[IPC]
Application
Patent no.
Serial No.
Date

Filing date

Priority data Fields of search

Applicant/Assignee References cited

Inventors Representatives

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 Abstract Title

No. of claims

No. of drawings

No. of pages of the

spec. and claim(s)

No. of words of the

abstract & claims

Drawing(s) to be
published in the O.G.
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 Classification Schemes
• International Patent
Classification (IPC)
• European Patent Classification
• US Classification
• British Classification
• Cooperative Patent Classification

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International Patent
Classification
Patent bibliographic data arranged according to
international classification
• An instrument for the orderly
arrangement of patent documents
• A basis for the selective dissemination
of information
• A basis for investigating the state of
the art in given fields of technology
• A basis for the preparation of
industrial property statistics
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 Complete Classification
Symbol of IPC

1/00 MAIN GROUP

A 01 B
1/24 SUBGROUP
SECTION
CLASS
SUBCLASS
GROUP

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Hierarchical Structure of Classification

SECTIONS

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Hierarchical Structure of Classification

CLASS Class

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Hierarchical Structure of Classification

Subclass
SUBCLASS

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Hierarchical Structure of Classification

MAIN
MainGROUP
Group/Subgroup

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Espacenet

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3. How to do prior art search?

Search Retrieval Tools

 IPC Search Files

 Subject Index
 Inventor Index
 Assignee Files
 CD-ROM Databases
 Internet
 General Search Strategy:
Keyword Search Method
• What is your invention?
• Search for possible keywords, or key
phrases – should be based on the
essential technical features of the
invention
• Use that key word/s in a trial and error
search
• Consider patents relevant to the subject

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 Technical features
Structural (concrete) or functional
(performance) elements necessary to
produce the technical effects of the
invention. Examples: Structural elements
could be: a transistor, a chemical
compound, a vessel for liquids, the structure
of a molecule. etc. Functional elements
could be: a step in a procedure, elements
identified as "amplifying means", "a solvent",
"heat conducting means", etc. (MSE)
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 essential feature
in particular those which are necessary for
achieving the technical effect or, expressed
differently, for solving the technical problem
with which the application is concerned
(MSE).

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 technical problem
• The task or aim of modifying or adapting
the closest prior art to provide the
technical effect that the invention provides.
(MSE)
 closest prior art
• The closest prior art is that combination of
technical features derivable from one
single reference that provides the best
basis for considering the question of
obviousness. (MSE)
• Most likely the International Patent
Classification (IPC) of your application is
the same or similar to the closest prior art
 Keyword Search Method

• The longer the key phrases used, the

more specific the search will be.
• Thus, if there are no hits, you may
consider reducing your key phrases into a
keyword
• If there are many hits and you want to
make the search more specific, you may
lengthen the key phrases to be used. You
may even used your working title as the
key phrase
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Espacenet advanced search –
Type at Google

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3. How to do prior art search?

patent family- where else it is protected?

3. How to do prior art search?
 Boolean operators
• The OR operator - finds patents that
match at least one, if not all, of the terms
in the query e.g. "car or automobile or
vehicle"
• The AND operator - finds patents that
match all the terms in the query (eg "solar
powered car").
• The NOT operator - To exclude irrelevant
patents from a search "nail NOT finger"

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 Default operators
• For the title and abstract fields, the default operator is
AND
• For the publication number , application number and
priority number fields, the default operator is OR
• For the inventor and applicant fields, the default
operator is AND
• For the ECLA and IPC fields, the default operator is
AND
• The default operator for combining 2 or more input
fields is AND
• No operators can be used for the publication date .
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 Truncation
• There are three different wildcard
characters available:

• * - stands for a string of characters of any

length (standard sign for truncation in
internet)
• ? - stands for zero or one character
• # - stands for exactly one character

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 Nested queries
• the search engine processes the
innermost parenthetical expression first,
then the next, and so on until the entire
query has been interpreted.
• Example: ((mouse OR rat) AND trap) OR
mousetrap.

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 using quotation marks “…”
• bring back documents that include the
search terms exactly.

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Patentscope – search by google

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 https://www.ipophil.gov.ph/ >
SERVICES>patent > Patent search

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Type “uspto patent search” at
google

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USPTO quick search
ttl/furnace

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 Google Patents
• User friendly and gives you the pdf copy
Google Patents Advanced
Search
 NCBI – for biotech

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Mga Resultang 1 - 10 sa
halos 1,160,000 para sa rice
bran oil .
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Sample

A researcher came to you and he said that

he found a method to enhance abiotic
stress tolerance in plants by introducing
DNA sequences that expresses cold
shock protein from a certain bacteria. With
your knowledge on patent searching,
would you consider his method
patentable?
You may try Espacenet advanced
search – Type at Google
 Renewing the Search
• The invention may not be what you think it
is after the preliminary search.
• Documents searched may yield further
clues or references that should be
searched
• After narrowing down what appears to be
new in the application, the database
should be searched anew for the invention
spotted in order to establish novelty.
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 Invention Spotting
© 2013-2015 by Caezar Angelito E. Arceo
cangear@yahoo.com | http://ph.linkedin.com/in/cangear |
http://www.slideshare.net/cangear
Prepared and used for the IPOPHL’s ITSO network, in particular, “ Writeshop
for the Preparation of Patent Applications” organized by IPOPHL and
STRIDE, Iloilo City, 20-23 October 2015
technical
Special

feature
Prior
art
 Good Rule of Thumb in
Technology Disclosure
• Select at least 3 prior art or literature
closest to your invention. You can search
prior art
here: http://worldwide.espacenet.com/adv
ancedSearch, google patents, ncbi (for
biotech inventions), google.com;
www.ipophil.gov.ph
 Special Categories of Cited
Documents – ITSO form
• A - document defining the general state
of the art which is not considered to be
of particular relevance; in your patent
document, these are usually placed at
“Background of the Invention”
specifically on the “Description of the
Related Art”.
 Special Categories of Cited
Documents - ITSO form
• X - document of particular relevance; the
claimed invention cannot be considered
novel or cannot be considered to involve an
inventive step when the document is taken
alone
• Y - document of particular relevance; the
claimed invention cannot be considered to
involve an inventive step when the document
is combined with one or more other such
documents, such combination being obvious
to a person skilled in the art
 ITSO
Search
Report

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 ITSO
Search
Report

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 claim chart

Application (features) D1 (prior art 1) D2 (prior art 2)

e.g.
sensor yes no
Curved optical fibers no no
Pulsed light yes yes
Etc.
…
..
.
What are the advantages or benefit of the unique technical features of the current
application?
 What is new in the invention?
• This will be the basis for drafting your
application (patent or UM)
 THANK YOU!!!

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