One thing I forgot to mention about searching for prior art, kinda important, too:
Do a web search for "prior art search." There are companies that do it for you, at costs that are... well, less than $500/hour. It's a flat fee.
When I was at Google we tried a whole bunch of them on the same patent, so we could compare them. There were a few that were quite good. Unfortunately I can't remember their names, but they're probably different now anyway.
So that's your gutsy opening conversation with Mr. Troll: "Hey, our search firm found some prior art that invalidates your patent. [Do NOT show it to him.] We're going to IPR you with it."
They might bluff you, laugh at your naivete, and say "We know all about that prior art; it's no good." If you have a lawyer, which you should, let him or her handle all this. You want the threat of an IPR to sound credible.
Do a web search for "prior art search." There are companies that do it for you, at costs that are... well, less than $500/hour. It's a flat fee.
When I was at Google we tried a whole bunch of them on the same patent, so we could compare them. There were a few that were quite good. Unfortunately I can't remember their names, but they're probably different now anyway.
So that's your gutsy opening conversation with Mr. Troll: "Hey, our search firm found some prior art that invalidates your patent. [Do NOT show it to him.] We're going to IPR you with it."
They might bluff you, laugh at your naivete, and say "We know all about that prior art; it's no good." If you have a lawyer, which you should, let him or her handle all this. You want the threat of an IPR to sound credible.