TECHNICAL SERVICES · INVALIDITY SEARCH
Invalidity Search
Identify compelling prior art(s) to challenge the validity of granted patents and support informed litigation, opposition, licensing, and business decisions.
WHY IT MATTERS
The problem it solves
Evaluates the strength and validity of granted patents before litigation, licensing, or other strategic IP decisions.
Helps organizations defend against patent assertions by identifying prior art that may invalidate one or more patent claims.
Enables informed decisions on whether a granted patent can be challenged before investing in costly legal proceedings.
Reduces litigation, enforcement, and licensing risks through comprehensive patent validity assessments.
Supports informed patent enforcement, defense, acquisition, licensing, and investment strategies.
HOW IT WORKS
From disclosure to actionable report
The same sequence on every engagement, in your system, to your rules.
- 01
Scope and disclosure
The invention, key features and any known art are captured in a search brief.
- 02
Search strategy
Classifications, keywords and databases are chosen for the technology and jurisdictions.
- 03
Global patent and non-patent search
Patent databases and non-patent literature are searched, including non-English documents.
- 04
Analysis and mapping
Relevant references are mapped to the features that matter for novelty or inventive step.
- 05
Report and review
An actionable report is delivered and walked through with your team.
What Invalidity Search does
Assessing the validity of an issued patent can be time-consuming and technically demanding, particularly when IP teams are already managing competing priorities and limited resources. A thorough invalidity search requires identifying relevant prior art across global patent and non-patent literature and determining how that art relates to the claims at issue. Missing relevant prior art can limit the effectiveness of a validity assessment or weaken the foundation for a potential invalidity challenge.
Trexo conducts comprehensive invalidity searches across global patent and non-patent literature to identify prior art relevant to one or more patent claims. The identified references are analyzed to assess their potential impact on novelty and inventive step, providing evidence-based insights to support patent validity assessments, litigation, licensing, and other strategic IP decisions. Our breadth of technical expertise helps identify relevant prior art while reducing the time and cost of searching.
Key capabilities
Prosecution history review
Global prior art coverage
Comprehensive prior art searching
Claim-by-claim prior art analysis
Strategic search methodologies
THE OUTCOME
What Invalidity Search changes
Deep technical expertise across complex technology domains
High-quality, relevant prior art
Faster identification of relevant prior art
Time and cost savings
Who it’s for
- IP law firms
- Corporate IP teams
- Portfolio management teams
- Innovation teams
- Research organizations
- Patent litigation teams
- Licensing and business development teams
COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS
About Invalidity Search
Do you search non-English patents?
Yes. We search patent publications across multiple jurisdictions, including non-English patent documents. Foreign-language references are reviewed using translations available through Espacenet, Google Translate, or the patent databases used during the search.
Do you review the prosecution history of the patent?
Yes. We analyze the prosecution history (file wrapper) to understand claim amendments, applicant arguments, examiner objections, and the resulting scope of the patent claims to have a precise understanding of the search scope.
Do you identify combinations of multiple prior art references?
Yes. In addition to identifying highly relevant individual references, we evaluate logical combinations of prior art where appropriate to support comprehensive validity assessments.
What makes your invalidity search service different?
Our service combines comprehensive global prior art searches, multilingual patent coverage, advanced non-patent literature research, detailed prosecution history analysis, claim-by-claim prior art mapping, deep technical expertise, and customized search methodologies to deliver strategic, evidence-based insights, and thorough novelty and inventive step assessments.
Why should I use a human over AI?
AI is excellent at searching and processing large volumes of data, but patent searching often requires technical interpretation, search strategy, and judgment. That’s where Trexo’s engineers and scientists add value to your patent search needs.
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Contact us and we will walk through your process, not a generic script.