Patent Search, Analytics and Examination Guidelines
This domain tests how patent information is found and how applications are examined. The exam mixes search strategy, database knowledge and the substantive tests examiners apply to claims.
Sources and tools
IPOPHL publishes its e-Gazette and maintains a Philippine patents database. International coverage comes from WIPO PATENTSCOPE, Espacenet and commercial or free full-text services. Classification matters: IPC and CPC for patents, Locarno for designs. A defensible search combines classification codes, keywords, synonyms, applicant and inventor names, and citation chasing.
Search types
A patentability search asks whether the claim is already disclosed. A freedom-to-operate search asks whether a product can be launched without infringing in-force claims. A validity search attacks a specific patent. A landscape or citation analysis answers strategy questions: who files, where, and how families grow.
Examination guidelines
Examiners check claim clarity, support by the description, unity of invention under a single general inventive concept, and industrial applicability, then assess inventive step by identifying the closest prior art, the distinguishing feature and the objective technical problem.
Worked example
A claim recites a drying rack with photovoltaic panels. A keyword search for solar dryer returns nothing. A classification search in F26B (drying) combined with the term photovoltaic finds an earlier utility model. The examiner cites it, and the applicant argues that the folding geometry is not disclosed. Reasoning: classification caught what keywords missed, because the earlier document never used the phrase solar dryer.
Traps
Keyword-only searching; ignoring non-patent literature; citing two family members as two separate documents; treating a search report as a validity opinion; searching only Philippine documents when novelty is worldwide; and reading claims without the description.