Special to ag-IP-news Agency
SACRAMENTO - PatentCafe, the global leader in Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) patent search engine technology and patent management tools, announced the availability of the Beta Version of 37CFR.com, the first of its kind integrated search and report workflow software.
The web-based application enables fast, cost-effective compliance with US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rules and search requirements in HR1908 and S.1145, the proposed Patent Reform Act.
The Patent Office Rules, which take effect on November 1, 2007, introduce a new requirement for patent applicants to prepare an Examination Support Document (ESD) for patent applications containing 5 or more independent claims, or 25 or more total claims.
The ESD requirements are complicated, and require the patent applicant to:
• Identify the most closely related US patent classifications for every claim.
• Search every claim to identify the prior art references “deemed most closely related”.
• Identify in the cited prior reference any limitations to each claim in the applicant’s patent.
• Explain the patentability of the current claim over the cited reference.
• Compile the detailed report, along with the required USPTO forms.
37CFR.com is a robust ESD report workflow application, unique in that the software also incorporates PatentCafe’s international patent database. The integrated patent search engine uses artificial intelligence to reliably speed the classification of each patent claim, and to instantly identify the “most closely related” patent prior art.
“PatentCafe’s advanced LSA technology cuts search time by almost 40%, and using artificial intelligence, it identifies non-obvious, but closely related prior art that keyword search engines can’t find. This is especially important following the Supreme Court’s ‘obviousness’ ruling in KSR v. Teleflex,” PatentCafe’s CEO Andy Gibbs said.
PatentCafe’s new ESD report workflow makes it nearly impossible to miss a step in a complicated patent search and report preparation process.
The USPTO estimated the incremental cost of complying with the new rule at $2,500 per patent application. The American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association (AIPLA) and other industry experts estimate the incremental cost to be between $4,200 and $13,000.
“With the significant cost savings provided by the 37CFR software, the incremental costs become little more than an ‘increased cost of business’ that should be easily justifiable, provided the patent applicant believes that there is sufficient market opportunity that requires the protection of a strong, defensible patent,” Gibbs stated.
