In the dynamic and ever-evolving landscape of innovation and intellectual property, patents serve as a shield to protect valuable inventions. While a patent is essential to protecting your innovation or advancement, the path to obtaining a patent presents many complexities, challenges, and pitfalls. One of the most critical missteps is overlooking the importance of a thorough patent search, which can lead to costly and time consuming setbacks.
What is a Patent Search?
A patent search involves meticulously combing through databases and similar resources to identify existing patents, pending patent applications, and relevant publications as they relate to the invention in question. This critical step helps establish the novelty, non-obviousness, and utility of the invention, and ensures that it is the only one of its kind on the market. Conducting a comprehensive patent search provides vital insights to determine the invention’s patentability, and lays the groundwork for the patent application process. Because the patent search process is so complex, delicate, and involved, many patent applicants can benefit from hiring a professional patent search professional to ensure that no detail is overlooked.
Uncovering Prior Art
The name prior art can be misleading when it comes to the meaning of the concept. Prior art refers to information that is publicly available before the effective filing date of a U.S. patent application. Prior art may include U.S. patents, published patent applications, foreign patents, foreign published patent applications, scientific publications, technical reports, product descriptions, websites, conference presentations, and more. In short, prior art refers to existing documents or materials that showcase similar inventions or concepts, and uncovering prior art is one of, if not the singular primary purpose of patent searches.
Identifying prior art is vital because prior art is what patent offices use to assess the novelty and nonobviousness of an invention. In light of prior art – or the landscape of existing similar innovations – if an invention is not novel or is obvious in any way, it may not be patentable. By conducting comprehensive patent searches or outsourcing to a professional in the patent searching field, inventors and patent applicants gain a better understanding of the existing landscape. This can provide reassurance as to the invention’s prospects of obtaining a patent, and can also allow inventors time to alter or redefine their invention to distinguish it from existing inventions on the market.
Avoiding Costly Mistakes
Pursuing a patent without a thorough understanding of the relevant prior art can lead to devastating setbacks including wasted time and money. Inventors pour their heart and soul – along with considerable resources – into creating something novel, not to mention the cost and time required to prepare and file a patent application. To discover that the invention is not novel or is obvious in light of prior art after the fact is devastating, and can also give someone else the opportunity to swoop in and corner the market. That’s why conducting patent searches upfront and gaining early insights into the existing market is vital for inventors.
If an inventor doesn’t conduct a thorough patent search, they risk unintentionally infringing on existing patents. Ignorance of prior art isn’t a defense from liability for infringement. It is the inventor’s responsibility to ensure that their invention is patentable before making it public. By uncovering relevant prior art through patent searches, inventors can greatly reduce the risk of infringement, providing the opportunity to design around existing patents or secure necessary licenses before moving forward. Beyond infringement, failing to identify prior art can weaken the enforceability of an inventor’s patent, if granted, leaving it vulnerable to legal challenges such as invalidity claims and opposition proceedings. It’s important to act proactively, and a patent search can identify and address potential challenges to strengthen the defensibility and validity of the invention.
How Patent Searches Enhance Strategic Decision-Making
Beyond assessing patentability and mitigating risks, patent searches can also play a vital role in guiding innovation strategies and business decisions. Patent searches give insight into market trends from a unique lens, allowing companies to identify emerging technologies, keep an eye on competitors, and make informed decisions about where to assign their resources as it pertains to research and development investments, intellectual property strategies, and licensing opportunities.
Experienced Philadelphia Patent Attorney
In the complex world of patent and intellectual property law, conducting patent searches isn’t just a standard practice, but an essential step to effectively obtaining and protecting a patent. By uncovering prior art, you’re buying valuable time to alter the invention, mitigate future risks, and guide strategic decision-making. Patent searches minimize costly mistakes and maximize the value of innovation. What sets Paul & Paul apart is our unwavering commitment to protecting innovators’ intellectual property. Our team, backed by years of experience and a history of successes in the field, not only understands the law, but we have strong academic credentials across non-legal disciplines allowing us to understand your patent in a way that most other attorneys can’t. We proudly serve clients in Philadelphia and beyond. Contact us or call us at (215) 568-4900 today for your free case evaluation!