Upon grant of a national or regional patent it often is possible during a short period of time of several months to raise objection (=to file a Notice of Opposition) against a newly granted patent at the patent issuing authority. With an opposition you seek to prevent yourself from being accused of infringement lateron with all its possible akward consequences (see also Infringement) if that patent is granted erroneously and should be revoked, or at least be limited by further amendments to the claims. To see if a validated granted and in force patent, or patent application to be granted, on a product, process or technical usage is bound to give you trouble (see Status) it is of importance what exactly is claimed. That you will find disclosed in the claims section of the patent document. By validity of the claims is meant that the patent protects an invention or innovation that is novel, inventive and industrially applicable (technically enabling; see Patentability). The "Opposition search" provides you with an answer as to how strong the claims of that patent stand and can provide you with a starting point in an Opposition proceedings before the patent authority to have the patent revoked, or further limited by amendments, or hint to evasive actions to stay out of trouble – such as licensing or workarounds (see also Validity and Nullity).
OSIP Search & Watch can perform such Opposition searching for you in a focussed and effective way by means of professional data base searching in the patent literature and report the results to you in a handy electronic report.
The cost for a thorough and careful Opposition search in the patent literature amounts to the number of spent hours of searching times our hourly rate increased by the costs incurred for data base usage, and additional document fees. On the order of 1500 – 3000 euro (ex VAT) is not uncommon and a turnaround time of ordinarily 15 – 25 working days is expected. It is therefore important to decide well in advance, i.e. several months at least before an opposition term ends, to order your opposition search. This would be much easier for you when you had put a watch on beforehand on a possibly threatening application during its procedure to grant (see Watch), so that you would know well in advance if, when and with which claims the application is to be granted.
Filing an opposition with the patent authority, however, is expert work. Calling in expertise from a patent attorney or IP lawyer to actually file an opposition based on the results from our Opposition search and represent you before the patent authority in Opposition proceedings is strongly recommended. We have excellent relations to that end.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information or a quotation: 