Definitions that do work

Software that assists IP professionals with patents, trademarks, copyright, designs and trade secrets — searching, analyzing, drafting and monitoring.

Software assisting patent professionals with prior-art search, novelty assessment, drafting, office-action response and portfolio analysis.

All public information available before a filing date — patents, publications, public use, sales — that can defeat novelty.

A single-reference test: does one prior-art document disclose every element of the claimed invention?

Whether the invention would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art — 35 U.S.C. §103 in the US, inventive step at the EPO.

Whether making, using or selling a product risks infringing in-force patents in a market — different from patentability.

The numbered sentences at the end of a patent that define the legal scope of protection — what others may not do.

A table mapping each claim limitation to supporting or anticipating evidence, row by row — the workhorse of invalidity and FTO analysis.

A patent examiner’s written rejection or objection — commonly under §101 (subject matter), §102 (novelty), §103 (obviousness) or §112 (written description) — requiring a response with amendments or arguments.

The back-and-forth with the patent office from filing to grant: office actions, responses, interviews, appeals.

Assessing whether a proposed mark is available — searching identical and similar marks and weighing confusion factors before use or filing.

The core trademark test: would consumers likely confuse two marks, given mark similarity, goods relatedness, channels and other jurisdiction-specific factors?

Watching new filings, uses and marketplaces for conflicting marks after clearance — a developing SallyIP capability, not a shipped product.

Checking that each cited source exists, was retrieved for the current answer, and actually says what the answer claims — including word-for-word quote checks.

Fluent but false legal output: invented cases, misquoted statutes, or real citations supporting wrong conclusions.

An architecture where retrieval and verification gate every answer — evidence first, quote checks, citation-integrity guard, entailment grading, VERIFIED / QUALIFIED / RESEARCH REQUIRED modes.

The applications and grants across offices sharing priority claims to one original filing — the unit of global portfolio analysis.

The effective date a patent application claims — usually its first filing — against which novelty and prior art are judged.

Confidential business information with value from secrecy, protected by reasonable measures rather than registration.

Protection for original creative expression — ownership, infringement factors, licensing — highly fact- and jurisdiction-specific.