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State of the Art Search

Gain actionable insights needed before entering a technology domain. Strengthen your R&D strategies and simplify decision-making processes.

Benefit from our expert-led patent research.

What is a State of the Art search?

State of the Art (SOA), also known as prior art refers to all publicly disclosed information, including patents and non-patent literature. A State of the Art search, also called a Collection Search is performed to gain a comprehensive view of a specific technology domain. The search summarizes the level of development in a particular field, or how a particular technology has advanced. This type of search can aid in a firm’s decision-making process from the IP to the corporate level.

When do I need a State of the Art search?
An SOA search can provide insights, inform decision makers, and aid in crafting the best strategy for an organization’s innovation initiatives. A State of the Art search is needed if you want to:

Enter a new technology domain or market segment

Fine-tune research and development direction and strategy

Insights from an SOA can be a decisive factor in whether to pursue an invention or not. Conducting this search must be done before and during the development of your technology. While this search may provide you information regarding an invention’s novelty and inventive step, an SOA search is not enough to determine patentability.

SOA or Patent Landscape – which one do I need?
While an SOA search may be comparable to a Patent Landscape report (PLR) due to the broader nature of their scope, a patent landscape goes more in depth and looks at graphs and trends. Typical inclusions in a patent landscape report are:

  • Innovation trends (what patents are being filed, granted)
  • Patenting activity (who is patenting what, top applicants/assignees, top inventors)
  • What kind of patents are being filed in a jurisdiction?
  • Technology whitespaces (what areas are not being pursued)
 
 
See samples of our Patent Landscape reports here.

An SOA search on the other hand is considered a subset of a PLR and tends to look into a more narrowed down aspect of a technology within a larger domain. Among the questions that can be answered in a State of the Art Search are:

What are the innovation trends in this technology segment?

What are the existing solutions to the problem I'm trying to solve?

What is company X patenting and producing in a certain location?

What similar products or services already exist in the market?

At Parola Analytics, patent experts lead and review your State of the Art search projects. We build a team from our network of patent attorneys, agents, and subject matter experts that will suit your chosen technology segment. Covering both technical and legal fronts will be advantageous to a firm’s strategy and decision-making processes.

Apart from a comprehensive prior art search covering both patent and non-patent literature, our experts also ensure that we pay close attention to competing art (e.g. how other technologies have solved the same problem, etc). This allows clients to define how they are going to differentiate from competitors. 

Our reports are highly customizable to fit your requirements, and provide a client-approved technical mapping of claims and specifications to the elements of your search.

Get in touch or schedule a call to get a free consultation regarding your State of the Art search needs.

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