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When you decide to patent an invention, design or even a newly discovered or created plant species, you have to specifically outline the claims for your material. Once you come up with a specific description, you must check if such claims are already created or patented, otherwise you may be charged with infringement. With millions of dollars at stake, it’s clear that nobody will allow anyone to use their patented material without payment in exchange for rightful import and use. A cursory search is not enough due to the number of effective patents today (non-provisional patents expire after 20 years). How do you conduct a patent search? Do you need to pay for it?
Why Do You Need To Search for Existing Patents?
When filing for a non-provisional patent, a patentee’s application may be declined based on a number of factors. One of these is when there are already existing patents that have one or more exact claims like your patent pending material. Patent application takes around a year to complete and patentees have the option to submit for an appeal incase their application gets declined. You need to search if there are already existing patents to avoid wasting money on having a non-unique item patented.
Tips for Searching Patents
Search by classification
When searching for patents, using keywords is not enough. After doing a keyword search related to the nature of your patent, conduct a classification search. Come up with possible terms that are related to your patent. If you are patenting a unique door lock system, for example, search for brand names of similar locks. U.S. patents have around 150,000 subclasses. When your search entries appear, take time to click on subclasses to see more relevant patents.
Use a clustering software
In most patent searching services, the use of clustering softwares is often dismissed. Despite of this, clustering softwares are useful. Taking the previous example, when you want to patent a unique lock system, you can type in the previous search queries you used for classification search. The clustering software let you see a primary theme in which you can oversee different subthemes.
OR Boolean operator
Famous for Google searches, using the Boolean OR operator can help you manage you see relevant patents that you could have otherwise missed. Maybe you are already familiar with the three basic Boolean operators, namely, AND, OR and NOT. Using the AND operator will yield search results that contain all the terms that you input. This means that you will miss out on patents that contain just some of your keywords. To see all the results that contain all your keywords, use the OR operator. The only disadvantage of using an OR operator is that you will end up with thousands and even millions of search results (if your keywords are too general) which will take up several hours for you to review.
Use different search techniques
Lastly, do not limit your patent searching to one technique. At worst, someone with an existing patent claim similar to yours can file for a lawsuit against you. Use different search techniques at your dispersal.
International Patent Search
If you are in the U.S. and you are finally granted a patent, the scope of your patent’s protection will only apply to U.S. territories. Simply put, other countries can use your invention without paying you anything once they get to know how your invention works. That is why it is ideal to file for an international patent as well. As mentioned before, international patents are filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Just like patents filed in the U.S., WIPO has the right to reject patent applications. International patent searches can be done in www.patentscope.wipo.int. However, take note that patents filed through WIPO are effective in 148 countries only (see their website for more details).
Other Search Techniques
If you own a business or represent a company, you may want to perform extensive searches as well. Conduct an infringement search, too. An infringement search will help you determine what claims from other patents can possibly land you in infringement lawsuits. Infringement searches can be extended to international patents in case you want to apply for an international patent which can be done through Patent Cooperation Treaty under World International Patent Organization (WIPO).
If you intend to patent literature or art, conduct a validity search. A validity search will go through U.S or foreign patents (depending on your patent application) and check the claims of existing patents that may be used to invalidate your patent application.
When you want a thorough examination before you file a patent application, you can request for an examination search or state of the art search. These search types can help you adjust your application claims and when needed, serve as a legal document in lawsuits.