6 Steps Which Guide You To Conduct An Online Patent Search
- sagaciousipresearc
- Oct 16, 2020
- 4 min read
The most challenging part of a patent process that we perform is a patent search. An online patent search is highly difficult since it is time-consuming and daunting for most people. We are often excited at the thought of conducting a patent search, but a person who is conducting a patent search has to be very passionate about the entire search process. It is only then can we get the process right every time. A patent search process is not at all glamourous and requires a lot of digging throughout into the search history. To find the merits of an invention, you have to go through a lot of exploration of hundreds, if not thousands of papers.
It is scary for you that you have to face the fears of finding out someone else’s invention to be similar to that of yours. Someone else may have thought about launching an innovative idea, much before you have thought about it. The process of filing a patent application is stressful as you have to stop the entire search process in several patent search websites. Any professional patent search results coupled with a definite legal opinion from an attorney of a patent are what every business owner and entrepreneur anticipate, and they need to receive the same before they start moving forward with their business. This article is going to highlight the complete process of how patent attorneys can perform an advanced patent search in six simple steps.
Step 1: What Is A Patent Search, And What Is Not?
There is a clear difference between a patent search and a prior art search. We need a comprehensive previous art search for patentability. A search for patent documents might import the invention that you are making. Patentability states that your invention is eligible and has a novelty as well as non-obviousness. Overall, if you are getting a patent search done properly with assistance from a patent professional, then it would conclude with a legal opinion. A patent search informs a patent attorney to help the clients with a legal opinion that would be beneficial for them in the long run. Thus, the patent search, when clubbed with legal opinion, gives yield to proper patentability.
Step 2: Disclosure Of Invention
The patent attorney who is conducting the patent search for you must understand the invention before opening on the same after conducting the research. A reasonable attorney can successfully tease out the entire invention after asking proper questions to his or her client and thereby seeking more information about various aspects of the invention, its functionality as well as its applications. At Sagacious IP Research, the professional patent attorneys use a document of invention disclosure, which consists of many questions about the concerned invention. This makes the inventor think about alternative embodiments or some not implementable versions because of the cost. However, they were achievable if the price was not a barrier. After making improvements, a subsequent search is necessary for assuring that the changes or modifications in the patent are patentable.
Step 3: Identifying Key Features
After successfully disclosing the invention, a few features are found out that are coined as key features. This quantity differs from invention to creation but narrowing down the core set of features is necessary. This identification is very important to make sure that the attorney is covering all aspects of information without duplicating the effort. All the major features will need a separate search inquiry. Usually, attorneys define and state the features in as simple language as possible.
Step 4: Begin The Search Broadly
After having defined the key features, the attorneys start making a Google patent search service, which is the best search using natural language on the planet. In the search panel, the patent attorneys conduct investigations according to his or her requirements, which might include journals, literature, thesis papers, and newspapers, or any other reports from around the whole world. You may also need to search through several result pages before finding a document of the patent with a disclosure similar to that of the key features. This search process is lengthy and might take a few hours. Clients can also use different keywords and phrases for search. The search’s primary goal is to find out publications that consist of some but not all of the patent literature documents. These should have at least one of the functionalities or features of the invention.
Step 5: Classified searching: Determining Invention Classifications
The most efficient way of finding patent documents that are similar to the invention is to search within the proper classification of patents. There are several classifications of patents; hence you might need to become familiar with the same slowly when you start gathering inventions that are similar to your inventions. This step ensures that people who are not very friendly with USPTO may require a longer time to classify the searches. By identifying the subclassifications, you can refine your research to several patent documents that are manageable.
Step 6: Non-Google Searches
After completing the broad search, it is essential to conduct investigations in some other search engines that might have access to domestic and foreign publications that Google might not allow. There is a country-specific language search for patents as well. Multi-country searches are also available in the search engines. Relying only on Google is not a viable option, and we need to reassure that we turn over.
However, despite having all the knowledge available, people cannot conduct efficient searches on their own. Thus, you can come and seek help from our company at those times as we employ experts with professional knowledge who are committed to providing clients with the best possible service. Our employees have a deep understanding of prior art searches, and when it comes to claiming a patent, they know where to push the limits for expanding the scope of seeing what would become of the patent rights.
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