How to Begin Researching an Article One Study
Posted on Tue, Nov 15, 2011
As a follow up to last week’s post on how to choose an Article One Study, Patent Quality Matters offers tips on how to start the research process once a Study is selected.
Each Study provides a huge amount of information, and facing it all at once can seem daunting. That’s why the first step in the research process is always to sift through and pick out the bits of information that will help to develop a mental picture of the technology. Our best Researchers refer to this step as building a “framework” or a “profile” of the study. Here are some tips on finding what is most important in the early stages of research.
The Study Page
Start by reading the information found on the Study page. From the top, the first relevant information will be the expiration date—the last day on which prior art can be submitted for the Study. Keeping the expiration date in mind will prevent wasting good progress by running out of time. While most Studies run for six weeks, some may follow different timeframes.
Further down the page is information about the Study patents. The patents listed on the Study page represent the description of technology that submissions should refer to. When there are multiple patents involved in the Study, one patent is designated as the "guideline patent" because it has the earliest Latest Date for Prior Art. The patent section includes the guideline patent’s serial number, the date it was filed, and the owner of the patent.
Knowing who owns the patent may also help to “profile” the technology. Is it a large company? Is it an individual inventor? If you don’t recognize the company name, quick Google searches will often yield the basic information. This will help to shape your initial understanding of the company, and why the technology is important.
LDPA and Other Dates
The filing date of the guideline patent is the first point of reference. If you happen to have extensive expertise in the field of technology, this date should automatically provide a general idea of what era of technology is at hand. If you’re new to the field, then this will be a starting point in your general background research.
As mentioned, a key piece of information in this area is the “Latest Date for Prior Art.” In short, public literature is only considered a potential prior art if it was published before this date. The LDPA is often one year prior to the patent’s filing date, but other factors may cause the latest date to be months or years before the patent was filed. While older resources have access to older information, recent literature can still be a great way to find earlier sources through bibliographies and citations. Since the LDPA is a deciding factor on potential prior art, every submission should be compared to that date.
Claims
Any Researcher embarking on a Study has likely taken a cursory look at the claims. Claims are notoriously difficult to read and understand since they need to describe every detail of the invention. Therefore, it is a good idea to read the claims a number of times, while gaining background information. Many of our researchers keep an ever-changing list of recurring keywords and phrases, and utilize these lists in future Studies.
Under the heading “Requirements to Match", there may be particular claims identified by number that are most relevant to the Study. Once you gain an overall understanding of the claims, go back and review these specific pieces. Try to figure out how these particular claims relate to the rest, and what makes them distinct. Focus on key elements of these claims and make sure that they are on your list. These will likely be a major part of “profiling” the patent.
Finally, the patent drawings can be crucial to understanding the claims. In most cases, the drawing will help to explan the information found in the claims, and can show exactly which piece of technology is in question.
Find detailed help on how to read claims in our guide (PDF).
Get started on the Browse Studies page and try out some of these tips!