Patent validity search

As a business you could be faced with questions about patent infringement and licensing.

You may be considering taking legal action for infringement of your patent, taking part in opposition proceedings at the European Patent Office or approaching a company to arrange a licensing deal. A competitor may have threatened you with infringement proceedings.

Before you can take decisions you need to confirm whether the patent at issue is valid or not. If a patent was incorrectly granted because it protects something which is not new or obvious to a skilled person, then it can be invalidated.

Why use this search?

This search could help you avoid legal costs or negotiating unnecessary licence deals by giving you the information necessary to decide if a granted patent is vulnerable to legal challenge.

Our search will look to establish whether all documents relevant to the question of novelty and obviousness were found before a patent was granted.

Your search will be done by one of over 200 science-graduate patent examiners. By using searchers with a technical and legal expertise in searching and examining patent applications we can ensure that you will receive a full list of all the relevant documents.

Our fast turnaround time means that you have the information you need quickly.

You can be sure that any information you give us will be handled in the strictest confidence.

Cost and timings

The cost of a validity search depends on technical difficulty, but typically they start from around £1,500 plus VAT We give you a free estimate of the costs before we start work.

We will issue your report within 10 working days of us agreeing the costs with you.

Contact us

To request a free estimate or to get more information you can:-

E-mail us at sas@ipo.gov.uk or phone +44 (0)1633 811010 or fax +44 (0)1633 811020