Patent Law

Why the Hawk

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

A friend and client, India born, was telling me about the different prior art search firms he had used. "The Indians are cheap, and you get what you pay for. They find something and they quit. They know nothing about litigation, or U.S. patent laws. They have no concept of story art. They just throw a piece or two of art over the wall to you and declare victory. The European Patent Office searches like examiners. What else would you expect? They do okay for a superficial search, but for a litigation search, they are incomplete. Like the Indians, the EPO also just cites references."

Patent Hawk has been a studious prior art searcher for a decade, and an eager technologist for decades.

A Patent Hawk search is geared to efficiency: bang for the buck. A search starts with understanding the technology. Working in litigation for a decade, and grasping every patent litigation case law decision like a hawk, Patent Hawk understands claim construction. That's important to ensure that all bases are covered.

A Patent Hawk search is not an exercise of close-enough horseshoes-or-hand-grenades. We consider our reputation for excellence on the line every search. Of course, not all patents are invalid. If the prior art isn't there, it's close but no cigar. All any searcher can ever provide is the closest art. Patent Hawk is the best opportunity to find exactly that.

To get bang for the buck, search vector priority differs based upon the target. Sometimes straight-up keyword search first, sometimes forward-backward on the target or closest non-target art.

Patent Hawk understands that good story art can top a poorly written but technically superior reference. Having to tease out details and explain what a reference was trying to say is a formula for generating skepticism in a judge or jury, especially after the other side tears into it. Often better to have a straight arrow that just misses the mark. Nowadays, KSR serves to fill in the cracks, paints a bigger bulls-eye on the target, making prior art a volley shot with a larger sweet spot. But there is no substitute for the solidity of anticipation. Hunting down a gold-standard 102 can take dedication to excellence.

Patent Hawk reports search results by culling the most relevant quotes of close prior art, thus providing a "Reader's Digest" version of the reference in an email. Salient quotes speeds an attorney's comprehension.

References are posted on a download page. That way, anyone involved in a litigation, whether a file clerk or colleague, has a one-stop shop to all found prior art for a matter, without forwarding emails or shuffling files around.

Anyone who has read the Patent Prospector knows that English isn't a second language for the Hawk. And that's crucial, because, after all, prior art search, like litigation in the large, is ultimately an exercise in storytelling.

If your budget is penny-wise and pound foolish, call Patent Eagle. No kidding. An Indian firm, knowing the Patent Hawk reputation, calls itself Patent Eagle. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But painting lipstick on a pig doesn't make her a beauty. Only Patent Hawk is the real deal.

If you want to turn a threat into a nuisance suit, and a nuisance suit into dismissal with prejudice, there is only one search firm to bank on. Patent Hawk.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on February 09, 2010 (boomark / email).