Using our expert search services
You can ask us to do a patent search for you for a charge. This option may be useful if you need comprehensive search results to help you take a decision.
A patent search can:
- give an early indication of the chances of obtaining patent protection
- find out if your competitor's patent is valid
- help identify any infringement problems
- bring to your attention the state of the art for any particular technical area
These searches are not part of the patent application process. So you are free to define what you want searched or simply the question you want answered. However, these are the most commonly requested search types that we receive:
Patentability search
Also known as a novelty search. This will identify patents or other publications which are relevant to the novelty and obviousness of a product or process. It will give you a quick, full search without the need to draft patent claims.
Freedom-to-operate (FTO) patent search
Also known as an infringement or freedom-to-use search. This will help establish whether the product or process that you wish to make, use or sell will infringe somebody else’s patent.
Patent validity search
This is a comprehensive search which is used to check whether an existing patent is valid with respect to novelty or obviousness.
Grant assessment searches
Do you have to assess grant applications for technical projects? Do you need to know that the project does not duplicate work done elsewhere? Perhaps you have to consider how innovative or patentable is the proposed work? These searches can answer these questions for you.
Interested? Contact us for more details.
