We like to run a lot of Contests around these parts, and we’re glad to see you guys do so well in participating in them and accomplishing great patent research.

As you may recall, in our Contest Rules, we’ve favored non-patent literature and foreign publications during tiebreakers when your submission receives the same score as another submission and there’s money on the line.

You guys have been doing a great job of taking and running with that tiebreaker; in the process, submitting some great pieces of prior art and evidence of use.

We wanted to keep encouraging that sort of great research in our Contests. From here on out, in addition to tiebreakers, we will award every reference:

+5 bonus points if they are non-patent literature
+5 bonus points if they are published in a foreign language other than English

These bonus points can be combined and will be honored in accordance with the rest of the Contest Rules (e.g. combined with a main reference in Prior Art Search or boost an entry in a sub-contest for Evidence of Use).

We’re looking forward to implementing these bonus points to help recognize our users who go above and beyond to find the best references. Let us know what you think about the new changes.

Thanks again for being an amazing part of the Patexia community and we'll see you around the site!

Cheers,
The Patexia Team