Why Should I Conduct a Patent Search?

A patent search provides information regarding what has already been patented and published in the U.S. and in foreign countries.  If you do decide to file a patent application, this information may be used by the USPTO in assessing whether your patent application is patentable.  Thus, it is important to determine whether your invention is novel and unique prior to investing more money, resources, and time toward your patenting efforts.  Even though no patent search will be perfect and uncover every piece of relevant prior art, the patent search would still give you a much better idea of what your potential patent application may be up against.  If similar products or methods are found, there may be strategies to get around the prior art by either improving the invention or by more persuasively drafting a patent application to identify how the invention is new and different.

Inventors should typically not rely on their own patent searches as they are often very incomplete.  Some inventors may even ignore similar products because they don’t want to know that their inventions are not unique.  If you don’t find anything similar to your invention by running a few Google searches, it does not necessarily mean that your invention is novel and unique in the eyes of the USPTO.  Our experienced patent attorneys can assist you with your patent searching and assessing needs by carefully comparing and analyzing your invention to the methods and products that we find through searching the U.S. Patent Office and other applicable U.S. and foreign databases.