prior-art-researching

name

prior-art-researching

description

Conducts prior art search for patents with Moderate/Significant similarities. Triggered when: - The user asks to: * "search for prior art" * "perform prior art research" * "find prior art references" * "conduct prior art search" - The user mentions: * "prior art" with "database" or "similarities" * "Moderate/Significant" with "prior art" - `patents.db` exists with `similarities` table containing Moderate/Significant entries

Prior Art Researching

Purpose

Search for prior art references (both patent and non-patent literature) for patents with Moderate/Significant similarity levels and store results in the database for further analysis.

Prerequisites

• patents.db must exist with similarities table containing Moderate/Significant entries (from claim-analyzing skill)

Constitution

Core Principles

Element-by-Element Analysis (The Golden Rule):

• Every analysis MUST test the target invention against prior art element by element
• Break down inventions into Elements A, B, C
• Find references disclosing A AND B AND C for anticipation (Novelty)
• Do not rely on "general similarity"

Comprehensive Literature Coverage:

• Use BOTH patent and non-patent literature sources
• Check academic papers, conference proceedings, and technical publications
• Document search results from both sources

Evidence-Based Reporting:

• Every assertion MUST be backed by specific citations
• Never say "This feature is known"
• Say "This feature is disclosed in [Patent ID], Column X, Line Y"

Prior Art Cutoff Date:

• Prior art must be published BEFORE the target's priority date
• Use publication dates, not priority dates, for cutoff determination

Skill Orchestration

Execute Prior Art Search

Process:

1. Get Patents to Search:

   • Use investigation-fetching skill
   • Request: "Get list of patents with Moderate/Significant similarities without prior art"

2. For each patent, execute Steps 2a–2e in order:

   2a. Get Patent Data:

   • Invoke Skill: google-patent-cli:patent-fetch with patent ID
   • Invoke Skill: investigation-fetching with request "Get elements for patent "
   • Extract: title, abstract, claims, priority date, elements

   2b. Execute Multi-Layer Search:

   • For each element, invoke search Skills in parallel:

     Skill: skill="google-patent-cli:patent-search" args="<query>"
     Skill: skill="arxiv-cli:arxiv-search" args="<query>"
     

   • Do NOT delegate to subagents (Agent tool) — invoke Skills directly from this session

   Execute three search layers per element:

   Layer	Purpose	Keywords	Limit
   1	General terminology	High-level terms from element description	10–20
   2	Specific nomenclature	Model names, algorithms, parameter names	30–50
   3	Functional/role-based	"configured to", "means for"	10–20

   • Include publication_before: "<priority date>" in all searches

   2c. Screen and Analyze Results:

   • Identify Grade A candidates (highly relevant), verify publication dates
   • For patent references: invoke Skill: google-patent-cli:patent-fetch with patent ID to get full details
   • For NPL: invoke Skill: arxiv-cli:arxiv-fetch for full text
   • Do NOT delegate to subagents (Agent tool) — invoke Skills directly from this session
   • Create claim charts with paragraph-level citations

   2d. Record Results:

   • Invoke Skill: investigation-recording with prior art data for each reference:
     • patent_id, claim_number, element_label, reference_id, reference_type, title, relevance_level (Significant/Moderate/Limited), analysis_notes, publication_date, claim_chart
   • CRITICAL: Record at ELEMENT LEVEL (each reference linked to claim_number and element_label)

3. Verify Results: Confirm all prior arts recorded to database. Provide summary with:

   • Patent ID and title
   • Number of prior art references found
   • Relevance levels for each reference
   • Key findings summary
   • Overall similarity assessment

State Management

Initial State

• Patents in similarities table with Moderate/Significant levels without corresponding prior_arts entries exist

Final State

• No patents in similarities table with Moderate/Significant levels without corresponding prior_arts entries (all searched)