Discovery Dispatch

A Validity study is conducted usually because a company is being sued for patent infringement or because a patent is offered for sale and the purchasing party wants to be sure that the patent is in fact valid.  In either case the searchers job is to uncover prior art predating the issued patent showing known art which if known at the time of examination would have prevented the examiner from issueing the patent.  It is often the case the minimal effort is put on patent searching when applying for a patent and that a lack of prior art in the examination stage allows for issued patents having claims that are broader than they deserve to be.  When additional effort and resources are available, a searcher may be able to spend a significant amount of time uncovering additional art which may be used in court to invalidate a patent.  A true invention is valid by definition.  In reality, many patents are awarded which really should never have been granted in the first place.  This is the purpose of a validity study, to attempt to uncover additional priort art not known to the examier at the time the patent was issued.  An invalid patent presents no threat to companies being sued.  When a patent is invalidate, there are no claims to enforce against a manufacturer.