Searching for Published Patents
The National or Regional Patent Office of a country in which a Patent Application is filed will generally undertake a Patent search of previously filed Patents and Patent Applications in order to determine whether an invention forming the basis of a Patent Application is new and inventive. As such, undertaking Patent searching before or soon after filing a Patent Application can provide an initial indication as to whether a Patent is likely to be granted in respect of the invention.In addition, a Patent search may need to be undertaken for the purposes of assessing whether an invention is likely to infringe an existing granted Patent.
In general, the decision to undertake Patent searching will depend on the financial resources of the client, the circumstances surrounding the invention, such as the complexity of the invention and the technological field, and whether the client intends to use the invention or to offer the invention to an interested third party.
Our Services
We can conduct in-house preliminary searches using worldwide Patent databases in respect of published Patents and Applications for Patents and/or we can request a search to be undertaken by organisations dedicated to conducting Patent searching.
The cost of searching generally depends on the scope of the search and the level of comprehensiveness of the search required by the client.