A Kick Start to Conducting Invalidity Searches

NLPatent's Patent Number Search offers an efficient way for practitioners to conduct invalidity searches using NLPatent's proprietary Large Language Model (LLM). allows patent professionals to search by using a patent number as a query, rather than keywords.

An overview of conducting invalidity searches in NLPatent is provided in the video guide + by text below:

Step-by-Step Guide for Conducting an Invalidity Search in NNL Patent

1) Start a New Search

Log in to NLPatent.
Click New Search.
Change the default search title (e.g., to Invalidity or Whatever you'd like!) and click the ✅ checkmark.
Click Patent Number and add the patent you'd like to challenge

Tip: We generally recommend using the Patent Number search option as the AI looks at the claims in the context of the specification. That said, some users do like to use Natural Language and then paste in the claim they're trying to invalidate.

2) Apply Filters to Exclude Irrelevant Results

Especially for Invalidity searches we would recommend applying the following filters:

Apply a priority date filter to exclude documents published after the patent’s priority date.
- Ex: For a patent with a priority date of May 4, 2015, filter results to only include patents
Optional: Exclude the assignee of the target patent (e.g., Microsoft Technology Licensing).

3) Use AI Tools for Assistance in Analysis

NLPatent offers various tools that can be used in tandem to make your searches more effective. This includes, Relevance Analysis, Explainability, and Ask NLPatent. In particular, we recommend using Ask NLPatent to ask questions about specific features (e.g., "What about gesture detection is discussed in this patent?").

4) Refine Search with Highlighted Text

Our Semantic Search engine is quite intelligent but can always benefit from a bit of extra context. Hence we recommend doing at least 1-2 refinements per search. Refinement can be done by:

Entire Patents (Whether from the Results Tab or Manually added)
Highlighted Sections of Patents
Non Patent Literature

Once you've provided the necessary information you'd like, hit "Refine" in the top left corner. You will now see that the results have re-ranked based on the information that you've provided.

5) Optional: Use Keyword Filters and Highlights

Optionally, for certain searches users may benefit from applying Keyword Filters. We generally recommend using Keyword filters if a term of art is necessary for a search, one thing to note is that Keyword Filters will exclude results that do not contain that term.

Alternatively, one can apply Custom Highlights when looking for keywords, but in scenarios where they may not necessarily want to exclude results.

6) Export Results

Finally, users can download the results by going to the download button in the top right corner. Select the appropriate fields you'd like to export and then click Generate.

If Relevance Analysis is selected as a field, only patents where a relevance analysis has been generated will contain the text in the report.

Extra Tips

Enforcing a Claim:

If your patent has several claims and you want to re-enforce a specific claim(s), you can manually add the patent you're trying to Invalidate. Then, highlight the claim(s) you'd like to use and hit refine, this way a specific claim is emphasized over the others ones, which can be helpful to drill down specific concepts.

Query Combinations:

Users may also find it helpful to use the Multiple Queries and Query Combinations to function to run several searches in tandem (ex. Patent Number, Claim 1, etc.)