Get Antedated Check

Prior art generally does not include unpublished work or mere conversations (though, ing to the European Patent Convention, oral disclosures also form prior art—see Article 54(2) EPC).

An abandoned patent occurs when the inventor doesn't finish the patent process or fails to pay any required fees. With an abandoned patent, you get to take advantage of someone else's hard work. More so, you get the opportunity to expand and improve on the work of others, which is key to fostering innovation.

“An abandoned patent application may become evidence of prior art only when it has been appropriately disclosed, as, for example, when the abandoned patent [application] is reference[d] in the disclosure of another patent, in a publication, or by voluntary disclosure under [former Defensive Publication rule] 37 CFR ...

If you have not responded to the Office Action six months after the original mailing date, your patent application will be considered abandoned by the USPTO, meaning you will no longer be able to patent your idea unless you can provide a valid explanation for the delayed response.

Since utility patent applications are generally published 18 months from the priority date, it is possible that someone else's unpublished patent application filed before before your filing date will count as prior art against you.

Three major types of prior art patent searches: – Text searching, – Patent classification searching, and – Patent citation searching. A complete patent search will involve all three of these methods.

A patent search is frequently carried out by patent offices or patent applicants in order to identify relevant prior art. Certain patent offices may also rely on the patent search results of other patent offices or cooperate with other patent offices in order to identify relevant prior art.

A Rule 131 declaration could antedate reference(s) cited in these proceedings against your patent. In both situations, the goal is to establish an earlier invention date so that the reference(s) are no longer prior art, and thus not citable against your application/patent.