Google Adds Prior Art To Patent Page

The Google Patents page has been for some time now a one–stop shop for copies of published U.S. patents and patent applications. This week, the search engine giant added a new wrinkle—prior art. In an announcement published on July 16, 2015, Google Deputy General Counsel for Patents, Allen Lo, and Software Engineer for Google Patents, Ian Wetherbee, announced the new feature on Google’s public policy blog. In their words, “Good patents support innovation while bad patents hinder it. Bad patents drive up costs for innovative companies that must choose between paying undeserved license fees or staggering litigation costs. That’s why today we are excited to launch a new version of Google Patents, which has the power to improve patent quality by helping experts and the public find the most relevant references for judging whether a patent is valid.”

In describing the motivation, Google did not pull any punches, citing the dramatic rise of patent troll litigation “hitting companies of every size in industries from high–tech to main street.” Citing Newegg’s victory in litigation against Soverain Software—a case over online “shopping carts”—Lo and Wetherbee note that “the best prior art might be a harder–to–find book, article, or manual,” and offers up the new Google Patents prior art search functionality as the tool to find non–patent prior art.

As Lo and Wetherbee write, increased access to prior art not only benefits accused infringers defending against lawsuits filed under existing patents, but also patent examiners reviewing pending applications. The ability to hone in the most pertinent prior art quickly and efficiently benefits all stakeholders in the patent system.