Prior Art Search

Prior Art Search contests are aimed at determining if a patent idea was known and publicly available before a patent was filed.

For more information please take a look at the Intro to Prior Art Searches.

Submission Rules:

• Submit only your best reference. Your submission’s final score will be the average of all of your reference scores.
• Submitting one reference might not always be possible, so you are allowed to attach a supporting reference. Supporting references must include an explicit statement that the current reference is a supporting reference and a clear citation of the primary reference it is attached to.  It must also include an explanation on why the primary reference is insufficient to answer the contest, and why the supporting reference is necessary to complete your submission.  Supporting references will not be averaged into your final score.
• For help narrowing down your references take a look at this infographic.
• Submit only references filed/published before the given date.  For help take a look at our priority date guide.
• Don’t submit references included in the  “Known Reference” list (including similar documents such as patents in the same family or earlier drafts of a technical standard) or patents in the same family as the contest patent(s). Known References will not be scored.

Scoring:

• Your submission will be scored on a 100-point scale based on the average of your references’ scores.
• Your submission will be scored based on the grading rubric included with the contest description.
• Properly cited supporting references will not be included in your averaged score.
• In case of a tie with a contest prize at stake the tie will be broken by modifying the scores while keeping the overall ranking, based on:
• a) the inclusion of a citation, quote, and explanation in a submission;
• b) the type of reference submitted, favoring in order: product documents > articles or other non-patent publications > foreign patents > US patents;
• c) the date of submission, favoring earlier entries.

Prize Distribution:

• The highest scoring submission (after any tiebreakers) will be a "winner" and will receive 60% of the overall prize pool.
• The next two highest scoring submissions (after any tiebreakers) will be a "winner" and will each receive 10% of the overall prize pool.
• The next highest scoring submissions (after any tiebreakers) will be a "runner up" and will each receive an equal share of 20% of the overall prize pool until either: a maximum of 10 runners up, a minimum prize of $100, or the median of non-zero scores is reached.
• A user who referred a "winner" using our referral tool will receive 10% of the winner’s prize.

Evidence of Use

Evidence of Use study contests are designed to find commercially available products from a variety of companies that utilizes a particular invention.

For more info, check out the Intro to Evidence of Use page.

Submission Rules:

• Submit a product from after the given date. The more recent, the better.
• Submit as many products from as many companies as you can find.
• Similar products from one company will be considered as one product.
• Don’t submit a product that is on the “Known Reference” list. It will not be scored.

Scoring:

• The final list of selected products will be based on the results from the entire crowd and will be separated by company.
• For each company your products will be scored on a 100-point scale to determine the winners
• In case of a tie with a contest prize at stake the tie will be broken by modifying the scores while keeping the overall ranking, based on:
• a) the inclusion of a citation, quote, and explanation with a submission;
• b) the date of submission, favoring earlier entries.

Prize Distribution:

• 90% of the overall prize pool will be allocated and divided evenly between companies.
• For each company the highest scoring submissions (after any tiebreakers) will be awarded an equal share of the portion of prize allocated to that company until either: a minimum prize of $100, or the median of non-zero scores is reached.
• The user submission with the greatest number of awarded company prizes will be a "winner" and will receive the remaining 10% of the overall prize pool.
• Any submission with at least one awarded company prize will be a"runner up".
• A user who referred a "winner" using our referral tool will receive 10% of the winner’s prize.

Patent Mining

Patent Mining contest are constructed to solicit valid patents from a variety of assignees with claim language that describe a particular invention.

For more info, check out the Intro to Patent Mining page.

Submission Rules:

• Submit only patents.
• Submit only patents filed within the given date range.  For help take a look at our priority date guide
• Verify that your patent has a fee status of “Paid”. Try Google Patents for a quick check.
• Submit as many patents from as many assignees as you can find. Your final score will be based on each assignee.
• Use only patent claims in support of your answers.
• Don’t submit a patent that is on the “Known Reference” list (including patents in the same family). It will not be scored.

Scoring:

• The final list of selected assignees will be based on the results from the entire crowd including the number of qualified patents, and will be separated by assignee.
• For each assignee your patents will be scored on a 100-point scale to determine the winners.
• In case of a tie with a contest prize at stake the tie will be broken by modifying the scores while keeping the overall ranking, based on:
• a) the inclusion of a citation, quote, and explanation with a submission;
• b) the date of submission, favoring earlier entries.

Prize Distribution:

• 90% of the overall prize pool will be allocated and divided evenly between assignees.
• For each assignee the highest scoring submissions (after any tiebreakers) will be awarded an equal share of the portion of prize allocated to that assignee until either: a minimum prize of $100, or the median of non-zero scores is reached.
• The submission with the most number of awarded company prizes will be a “winner”  and will receive the remaining 10% of the overall prize pool.
• Any submission with at least one awarded company prize will be a “runner up”.
• A user who referred a "winner" using our referral tool will receive 10% of the winner’s prize.

Market Research

Market Research attempt to understand the expert consensus around a particular topic from people with either first hand knowledge or extensive research background in the field.

For more info, check out the Intro to Market Research page.

Submission Rules:

• In order to have your submission scored you must submit a response to every qualifying and survey question to demonstrates your expertise and experience in the subject matter.
• Submit your educated and evidence based opinion.
• Submit as few or as many references as you think are needed for us to understand and/or fact check your opinion.
• Don’t submit an opinion without any explanation.

Scoring:

• Qualifying questions are used to assess response validity but are not scored, and do not have a prize attached.
• Each submission will be categorized as either “Qualified” or “Not Qualified” and receive a corresponding score of 100 or 0 on a 100-point scale.

Prize Distribution:

• The overall prize pool will be allocated and divided between the substantive questions as described in the Contest description.
• For each substantive question qualified submissions will be awarded an equal share of the portion of prize allocated to that question on a first come, first serve basis until the minimum prize as described in the Contest description is reached.
• Any qualified submission with at least one awarded question prize will be a “winner”.
• Any qualified submission that was submitted after all prizes have been awarded will still be a “runner up”.
• A user who referred a "winner" using our referral tool will receive 10% of the winner’s prize.

General Rules

Submission rules for all contest types:

• Only one submission is permitted per person.  If it is discovered that a member has created multiple accounts or otherwise submitted multiple times to a contest the responses will be disqualified.
• If you collaborate on your contest response only one response may be submitted per team. If it is discovered that multiple responses have been submitted they will be disqualified.
• Submit your entry in English or provide a brief translation of relevant information. The Patexia team has no obligation to grade responses we cannot access due to language or other barriers.
• As per the Patexia terms of use, do not submit any confidential documents, or any information you do not have the right to share.
• Contest grading is based on Patexia’s research questions, and does not constitute a legal opinion on patent validity or related litigation.
• When grading responses, the ultimate arbiter is the original text of the patents at issue and guidance from the contest sponsor.
• By submitting to a contest you are agreeing to abide by our Terms of Service.

Patexia certifies we will abide by the following:

• Patexia will never charge any fees to process your payments. Prize money is transferred by Paypal and they will deduct a transfer fee from your prize payment. Their fee structure is described here.
• Patexia will never change the rules during a contest. If we do modify them, we will always post on the contest’s description page before the contest begins.
• Prizes will be distributed with 60 days of sending the contest results email.
• If your payment settings are incomplete or we are for other reasons unable to send your prize within 90 days of your prize’s announcement date, your prize will expire.