Patent Law

The following is excerpted from an April 8, 2008 PatentCafe press release:

Today, patent information provider PatentCafe introduced a new line of patent quality evaluation reports for United States patents in patent infringement litigation cases decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) following the April 30, 2007, Supreme Court decision in KSR International Co. V. Teleflex Inc. (KSR).

The new Patent Factor Index (PFi?) Reports, available for public downloading without cost, statistically score more than 2 dozen indicators of patent quality, many of the indices correlating directly to how the CAFC has decided on cases involving these patents.

High technology law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati says that "(s)ince virtually every litigated patent case includes an assertion of obviousness, and since the Patent Office examines every patent application for obviousness, KSR v. Teleflex is arguably the most important patent case of the last 20 years."

PatentCafe's PFi? report system uses the company's international patent search engine, and its proprietary artificial intelligence search technology, to identify and compare indices of 100 most closely related patents. The index scores for each patent quality critical factors that can reflect court decisions that relate to the quality of litigated patents:

Practically, the indices highlight patent quality of three key patent quality groups: Legal, Commercial, and Technology factors.

The patent pending PFi? reports were first introduced in 2004, and have been used by the world's largest patent owners, law firms, technology investors and intellectual property consulting firms to analyze patents for acquisition and licensing, and to support litigations strategy.

PatentCafe's intellectual property management software solutions are used for patent research, infringement analysis, product R&D investment strategy, licensing revenue development, patent-based business intelligence, portfolio / technology M&A.

The time frame covered by the reports includes CAFC decisions starting May 2007, and is updated the day following new CAFC decisions.

The PFi? Reports are publically accessed here and a sample report is available here.