IdeaConnection Announces PACS

IdeaConnection.com offers Prior Art Citation Search (PACS), a new service that grew from client requests. Companies who have used IdeaConnection PACS are amazed with the results.

Companies seeking a new patent or entering into patent litigation have a need for prior art citations to support, defend, or discredit the patent being litigated. Typically, a company’s patent attorney hires a search firm to seek out technical references related to the patent, at least a year prior to the patent application. Search firms look in all the obvious places: they look at trade journals and search online using static software and compiling passive reports. But IdeaConnection PACS digs deeper.

Now companies can tap into IdeaConnection’s global patent research network for Prior Art Citation Search - PACS , a service that other search firms do not provide.

“IdeaConnection succeeds because we have thousands of relationships with people around the world who have access to non-traditional and unconventional disclosures,” says Scott Wurtele, Founder and CEO, IdeaConnection.

Companies pay only for successful citations!

Because PACS is a contingency service with no upfront fee, companies pay only for relevant citations. Instead of using passive, traditional search procedures, IdeaConnection awards each citation uncovered by its global network that meets your specific need.

PACS is unlike other search companies that primarily use software: “We mobilize groups of people by using economic incentives to identify the desired citation,” says Wurtele. “Once motivated, PACS searchers physically sift through libraries and dusty shelves for obscure material. For instance, they will find that Master’s thesis a student in the Ukraine wrote years ago.”

“I got very excited about PACS when we began to offer the service,” says Jim Beaumont, VP Business Development. “It became another way for our clients to access our global network of expertise.

“One of our biggest clients invited IdeaConnection to engage our network for obscure prior art”, Beaumont adds. “They wanted to knock out a competitive patent they had been trying to discredit for nearly a decade. The client had exhausted all efforts to obtain valid prior art for litigation, but still had a hunch that something existed. IdeaConnection submitted over 100 examples and 2 citations were accepted, successfully enabling the client to move forward.”

This is how PACS works:

IdeaConnection has a client (solution seeker) looking for prior art citations related to a patent. The seeker engages IdeaConnection with a search brief, including an award amount for acceptable target data. IdeaConnection contacts their members, (anyone registered with IdeaConnection can be invited into the search, according to their profile) and invites them to participate in a client search project.

Citations are submitted, evaluated, and presented to the client. If the client intends to take action with a citation, payment is made to IdeaConnection and the award amount is paid to the successful IdeaConnection member.

“The magic happens when individual experts who have their own networks begin to expand beyond ours and we all benefit,” says Beaumont. “If we offer a large prize, people will mobilize to split the prize within their own network, thereby doubling their search efforts.”

“One client figured he could break us by offering a project that was so incredibly hard we wouldn’t come up with anything,” says Paul Wagorn, VP Business Development. “But we found three citations for him that pre-dated the patent. He was thrilled and couldn’t believe we hadn’t offered citation searches as a service before.” And that’s how PACS started.

About IdeaConnection.com

Formed in 2007, IdeaConnection takes on challenges from companies large and small —including Fortune 500 companies. With diverse teams, world-class facilitators, and a high 'solve' rate, IdeaConnection is solving problems ranging from virtual reality to biochemistry.

Please contact us if you would like to know more about PACS and IdeaConnection.