Practice and Technologies

Epsilon is a patent searching firm dedicated to providing reliable, efficient and accurate results. Patent searching is an art as well as a science, and requires a constant stream of judgment calls on the researcher’s part. Our staff can be trusted to make competent decisions at critical junctures in the search process.

Epsilon specializes in patentability, infringement/clearance, state-of-the-art/collection, and validity searches for most practice areas including: business methods, surgical methods, chemical processing, materials, telecommunications, mechanical, and electromechanical technologies. In order to focus exclusively on its core business function of patent searching and to avoid conflicts of interest, we refrain from preparing applications or providing written patentability opinions.

An Epsilon researcher applies a consistent and proven methodology to every search performed. He begins with a face-to-face interview of a primary examiner experienced in the subject technology. Next, he manually searches the recommended subclasses as well as those determined to be relevant by his own analysis of the classification schedules and definitions. The researcher additionally performs computer-based Boolean/text searches to identify other pertinent references, including misclassified patents or published applications. Finally, a forward-and-backward citation search is performed on located references to ensure complete results.

All patent research is performed at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office using the most powerful, up-to-date search engines and databases (such as EAST and AHD) available to the public. Our Washington, DC metropolitan area location allows to also conduct literature searches at the Library of Congress, National Institutes of Health, University of Maryland and other top-ranked facilities.