Article One Partners concludes AUTO Patent Studies

Apr 13 2010

Article One Partners, the world's largest patent validation firm, today announced the conclusion of two Patent Studies conducted on behalf of a top global automaker, for which $30,000 has been awarded to two Advisors. In addition, Article One has closed two additional Studies exploring patent claims of Research in Motion and Pfizer.

The two automotive industry Studies marked a new form of research for the Article One community. These Studies requested key information to build a "State of the Art" collection for the automaker – performing a global search for prior art evidence related to key patents. This serves as a means to both strengthen the patent portfolio and to help the automaker best allocate resources for continued innovation and development. Article One provided a guaranteed reward of $15,000 for each of the two Studies, to be paid for the top one or two references that best describe the highest level of development related to technology claims predating the patent.  

"Article One Partners has been successful in building a comprehensive prior art collection that will help strengthen our client's patent claims," said Paul DiGiammarino, president of Article One Partners. "By engaging Article One's global community of researchers, we take prior art searching to a depth that traditional research methods simply can't achieve, and in a much shorter period of time. In this case, the State of the Art Collection of prior art strengthens the automaker's patents and portfolios, and allows for  better allocation of resources as they continue to drive new innovations in the auto industry."

Details of the auto industry Patent Studies follow below, including winners who will be paid the $15,000 reward for each of the AUTO Patent Studies. Additional information regarding each Patent Study and results can be found online at: http://www.articleonepartners.com/patent_study_results.php

Patent Study: AUTO 442.  Article One Partners concluded its Patent Study researching methods for stopping and starting an engine. The technology researched for this prior art collection involves stop/start systems for motor vehicle combustion engines.

• Winner: Congratulations to AOP Advisor "riskmentor" from Ireland, a biotechnology expert with an advanced degree from a Japanese university who is awarded U.S. $15,000.

Patent Study: AUTO 655.  Article One Partners concluded a second Patent Study related to an automated system for motor vehicles having an internal combustion engine, to automatically stop and start the engine.

• Winner: Congratulations to AOP Advisor "priorArtisan" from Canada, a software consultant with a degree in mathematics who holds eight U.S. Patents in information security. PriorArtisan is awarded U.S. $15,000.

"We're pleased with the success of these first State of the Art collection Studies. Our global community produced fundamental and highly valuable information in these Studies. This is a powerful new offering for our community, as clients seek to validate the strength of their patent collections to better value their intellectual property as an important factor in continued allocation of resources," said Cheryl Milone, CEO and founder of Article One Partners. "This also gives our clients critical information to design around other patents in their space rather than face costly redesign later in the development cycle. These collections are ideally researched as early in the innovation lifecycle as possible."

RESEARCH IN MOTION Patent Study: RIMM 055.  Article One Partners concluded its Patent Study exploring two Research in Motion patents related to a speech processing system. Prior art which can show the Study patents to be invalid had already been identified, and this Study requested supplementary prior art that provides additional paths to invalidity for the Study patents. The Study has been closed based on known prior art. For full details of the Patent Study, visit:>

GEODON – PFIZER Patent Study: PFE 031.  Article One Partners concluded its Patent Study researching patents covering the drug GEODON, used for the treatment of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and the manic symptoms of bipolar disorder. Article One prior art is not conclusive about patent validity. Advisors can continue to submit prior art to this Study and the prior art will be further considered for relevance and AOP profit sharing. For full details of the Patent Study and results, visit:>