Are you charting out a plan to reach your invention to the general public? Have you taken it through the patent approval process? If not, you are not legally eligible to sell your device or machine in the market. So, do you know how to obtain a patent for your innovation? First, you need to hire a patent attorney to draft your patent application. Second, you need to ask them to file that application to the USPTO. And when the patent examiner finds that your creation is not known and non-obvious, you will get legal rights for your product. But the question is, how can you make sure that your created item is unique and not known before an examiner reviews your application? Well, that’s where a comprehensive Patent Search Service comes into the picture.?
Now before you ask, let me tell you what patent search is:
What is Patent Search?
The patent search is a process of combing through various patent databases to determine whether your invention is already known or not. Usually, there isn’t any hard and fast rule to avail of a patent search service before you file your patent application to the US patent office. But it is a wise decision to pass your product or technology through existing and unpatented patent databases before an examiner does. It reduces the chances of rejection if patent inspectors come to know that your invention is not unique and an obvious one.?
Now let’s see what four types of patent searches are there that you can take advantage of:
1 – Novelty search
This patent search service helps you know if your innovation matches a prior art. If it does, your invention won’t get qualified for patent approval. Just to let you know, USPTO doesn’t allow you to patent a machine or instrument already patented by someone. The prior art could be a patented or unpatented invention, articles, publications, journals, or any publicly known technology.?
2 – Infringement search
It’s another type of patent search that lets you know if your creation could infringe on an existing patent. Note that an infringement search often involves a lawsuit as it is a part of the patent prosecution process.?
3 – State-of-the-art search
Inventors generally need to do state-of-the-art-search to find out if certain advancements took place in a specific industry. It helps them decide whether they should continue working on a technology or product or stop.
4 – Validity search
The validity search is a process of peeping into older patents to find out if a newer patent is valid or invalid.
Since a patent search needs going through a myriad of documents to determine if the invention is publicly known or not, you might not be able to perform this task single-handedly. That’s where the need for hiring professional patent researchers arises. They are well-versed with the tips and tricks to compare your invention with others and seek extensive patent databases. Apart from this, they interpret the wordings and drawings in patent applications well and know how to search closest prior arts (if available) using different keywords and cooperative patent classification.
Why do you need professional patent search services?
1 – Get detailed results
If your R&D team conducts a thorough patent search, chances are high they will take an enormous amount of time that their other projects needs. And since a patent search needs techno-legal expertise, they may lack in that area. It is the main reason you need to partner with an excellent patent search company that will provide you detailed results after patent search completion and that too in a reduced timeframe.
2 – Analyze received results
After the IP search gets completed, you might not know what to acquire from the results. For example, whether a particular claim of your invention would infringe on others’ rights or not. That’s where an expert patent analyst can help you analyze the provided results and let you know how vital your product or technology could be for the masses.
3 – Save a massive amount of time
A complete patent search consumes a vast amount of time, especially when you are not too experienced in the concerned field. But seasoned patent researchers are well-acquainted with tools, techniques, and terminologies that they need to fetch relevant prior arts in a limited time. Thus, you can save your precious time by taking this route and invest it in other pending inventions that are yet to take the product form.
4 – Defend your patent
When you are ready with the results of your patent search, it will also help your patent attorney defend your claims very well before the patent examiner during the patent prosecution process. It will allow the patent reviewer to see if your invention qualifies for a patent based on its obviousness or previously known information. Thus it will improve the chances and speed up the process of patent approval.
Concluding remarks
I hope you know how essential patent search services are for the patent approval process. If you want to leverage such services, get into conversation with reputable patent search companies right now.?
