How we helped solve temperature resistance problem in acrylate adhesives
Last week, in a call with Mr. Chang – research executive at the R&D of a huge chemical firm in China, we gave away the credentials of a magical wand we had. And Northstar got a chance to win the hearts of Mr. Chang and many researchers working under him. The wand was used for […]
How checking Change requests helped us invalidate a patent related to Mathematical expression?
The patent set was already exhausted. Searching on standards for hours started feeling like inside of a spiral that keeps tightening as you go down. In between, some references emerged undeniable as the Sun in a clear sky. The truth, however, sometimes disappoints. The references had a date after the priority date or as the […]
How we found Prior Art of a Composition Patent for IPR?
Not all prior art searches are run equally. Some are complex, some are easy, and some test your temperament by pushing you to the dark abyss of self-doubt where you question your abilities and skills. This is the stage that demarcates winners from runner-ups. The thin line of demarcation that separates a winning patent search […]
Novelty Search in Videos – My journey from having nothing to a relevant art
After a long and hard day at work, I like to come home to a steaming cup of coffee, with toasted marshmallows on top, chocolate chip cookies on the side and some entertainment source to get my mind off work. While some people prefer books and other television, I find watching videos very relaxing. It […]
How a Mobile App helped us find relevant Prior art in an invalidity search?
“Not today!” – I groaned as I woke up and saw the clock beside my bedside. It was 8:15 AM already and I had only 45 minutes to get to the office. I couldn’t afford to get late as I had a client call scheduled at 9:15 AM that day and would need at least […]
How we helped a client solve the problem of driveline oscillations in EVs
How great would it be if the energy released could be stored or used just after applying brakes! Time for a high-five. The solution is named – Regenerative Brakes, an energy recovering mechanism that differs highly from their counterpart conventional brakes. On applying these brakes, the kinetic energy, instead of getting wasted as heat, gets […]
How We Invalidated a Patent Related to Drones?
Drones fascinate me. They are wonderful tools of entertainment and transportation and has so much potential, which, if fully explored can change the way mankind transports. Technology companies around the globe, are researching the solutions for the problems of the domain and it would only be a matter of time before drones are everywhere. TBH, I’m waiting […]
How We found Prior Art in Non Patent Literature of University Publication?
I was leaning in my chair while watching those bees through the steam of my coffee. They were four in number, flying from one plant to another, from one flower to next, collecting the sugary nectar. When they were fully loaded, which was a task completed sort of thing for them, they flew back. The […]
Physical Search: Unconventional Way to find Prior Art
Prior art can be found in a lot of places. Some conventional, others unimaginable yet a valid source of prior art – the unconventional one. As analysts, we are tuned to exhaust the conventional sources before probing into unconventional ways. But sometimes it is better to go unconventional in the very beginning, as it might […]
How we made the Plaintiff drop the Lawsuit against our Client?
Understanding the objective of the client goes a long way in customer satisfaction and retention. At GreyB, we are huge believers in fulfilling the objective of the client – rather than fulfilling just the objective of the project – and this attitude helped us a great deal in enriching the client’s experience and satisfying their […]
How Lateral Thinking Helped us in Invalidating a Standard Essential Patent on HDMI Technology?
Invalidating patents is hard. Invalidating a standard-essential patent (SEPs) is even harder. SEPs claim technical solutions that are part of industry standards. Needless to say, they are much more valuable than regular patents. The technology behind these patents is developed by some of the best industry experts, mostly while working in an environment already filled […]
Invalidating Design Patent: How we found Prior Art in a Museum?
We find prior art in a lot of unconventional places. Sitcoms, Pop culture magazines, FCC ID databases, Internet archives – Well, almost every place where you would least think of finding prior art. Having have found the impossible from places unimaginable, we were a bit awed when we found prior art in a Museum. Albeit an […]
How did we find Prior Art in a Sitcom?
I’m a self-confessed fan of sitcoms and movies. A binge-watcher by nature, I often spend weekends endlessly staring at my laptop screen, with munchies on my side, so that I don’t have to hit pause for trivial reasons such as hunger pangs. I love watching sitcoms! How often it happens that binge-watching shows help you […]
Patent Invalidation – 4 Instances Where We Invalidated Patents using Unconventional Methods
Click to read this article in Chinese 🇨🇳 What exactly is the objective of an invalidation search? That’s an easy question. Of course, it is to find a result – one that discloses every aspect of the patent in question (Called as Tier I). If not so, we look for a number of results that […]
How we helped a client overcome one major challenge of LiFi?
In this instance, North Star helped the research department at a moderate level electronics company in Germany. And the mystery we helped them resolve was of Li-Fi. A powerful and complementary alternative to radio frequency (RF) transmission, li-fi, use characteristics like intensity and frequency of visible light to communicate data between two devices (transmitter and […]
How we found references in non patent literature without performing an NPL search?
Prior art search is a big part of the work we do. When we started, we were convinced that prior art searches should never be run with a set framework where only the following few defined steps will lead to a result. Since X type results can be anywhere and they do not follow a […]
