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How to Perform Patentability Search

How to perform patentability search?

When it comes to patent services, there are a lot of measures one has to emerge to come up with all the proven documents claimed by the patent office. One of the primary processes conducted in the patent prosecution is patentability search which is also called the Novelty search.


A patentability search is described as an assessment done to find out any reference of any kind that reveals the features of the subject product/idea/invention.

How to perform patentability search ?

It is highly recommended to do a patentability search because it helps one identify the closest prior arts to an invention.

Below points are the ways of how to perform Patentability search:

  • Understand the objective of the patent search: The search needs to be conducted worldwide in both patent and non-patent literature. If your idea has already been patented or even published anywhere around the world, it means that your invention/idea does not meet the requirements of patentability, it will be rejected.
 
  • Requirements of patentability: Every country has their patentability requirements. However, a few of the requirements are common in every country that includes the idea that s should not be abstract, should be novel/ unique and should be none obvious. Further, few countries have additional requirements such as industrial application of the product/invention.
 
  • Invention disclosure: As a client, this is a statement containing background, drawings, description of drawings, advantages of the idea/product that you need to provide to the company performing the novelty search. The invention disclosure further includes details of the already known products/ information. This is a highly confidential document and needs to be submitted to the patent attorney only signing the NDA.
 
  • Keyword-based-searches: Making broad and narrow research using various paid and non-paid databases. Further, the search needs to be performed in the newspapers, magazines, dissertations and other reports from around the world to confirm the patentability of the invention/ idea.
 
  • Classification search: Every patent office has categorized the patent into various classes. Recently, most of the countries have come on board to use a standard classification for categorizing patents known as CPC. Classification search helps in identifying the relevant patents easily.
 
  • Assignee, Inventor, Citation-Analysis, Professional Companies do a thorough search by identifying prior art using various techniques and strategies. Search strategies include performing searches on assignee, inventor and citation analysis of relevant results.
 
  • Non-patent searches: Generally, when coming up with patent ideas, it is not good to only depend on patent searches. The search should also be performed on non-patent literature such as published information like journal articles, conference papers, and marketing information, as these may also act as an obstacle in getting a patent.
 
  • Legal opinions: After having all the steps followed, you now come to an end where you need to analyze results and decide on which references are closer to yours.

Benefits of doing patentability search

  • It contributes to a better understanding of the invention and prior art thereby increasing the chances of a better investigation of claims and approval.
 
  • It saves time and money. During patentability search, common mistakes are avoided because you always find a way on how you can go about the invention. If the idea is too obvious then no need to proceed and save 1000’s dollars in patent prosecution. Also, the search allows the inventor to modify the idea accordingly to get a patent.
 

We at Wissen Research offer patentability search services to help the clients determine whether his/her product is acceptable for the patent. It saves unnecessary cost and time which are spent on R&D. We also consult our clients in product modification to make them eligible for the patent.