Patent data from global databases can now provide a wealth of valuable technical and competitive information. Whether for reasons of informing R&D, patent drafting or business opportunity there is much to be gained at the relatively low cost of conducting a comprehensive patent search. 

The ability today to access and search more than 100 million global patent records in seconds is a benefit of the information revolution that must be used to stay competitive and deliver effective R&D. A search landscape will produce relevant valuable information early on in any technology project in order to guide and reinforce the technology development and the subsequent associated IP protection. Better to have fact based confidence about the competitive position rather than assume the development will not be blocked or the patent or application considerably weakened, declared invalid or failing to grant due to adjacent prior art.

Reasons for doing patent searching and literature searching can be summarised as:

v  Ensuring industrial (and academic) research is new and relatively unconstrained or at least informed by existing patent applications.

v  Increasing  patent claim grant success through shared attorney and inventor knowledge of most relevant prior art prior to patent drafting or saving effort and cost by determining early on that claims of others limit the protection you can expect to achieve.

v  De-risking potential business damage due to inadvertent patent infringement by businesses engaged in new technology developments.

v  Informed new business development with effective use of patent/technology landscapes/IP strategy.

v  Monitoring of competitors to understand their R&D efforts or business intentions and to aid in acquisitions or licensing

We can provide or assist with all the above. For any business based in the UK an excellent way of checking the foundations of your company/start up IP position is through the use of an IPO funded IP Audit Plus. This is a grant targeted to your specific business Intellectual Property needs and can include, for your remit, a significant patent search targeted to understanding the patent landscape/likelihood of patent grant/infringement of your technology or other IP aspects such as Trademarks/ Designs/contracts/agreements all supported by patent attorney opinion. A £400+VAT contribution is required towards the IP Audit by the applicant. We recommend that even our non IP Audit searches include the option of detailed reporting, and legal opinion summary of a Chartered Patent Attorney as this provides the best guidance for the next steps post search.

LINKS: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=da270221-6edf-4141-b849-d4b287906f46

This article above describes fairly well why it is essential to do a proper patent search prior to filing a patent application. In our experience there has rarely been a search conducted that has not produced surprising results or highly relevant technical information new to the inventor/R&D team which has then been used to alter patent claims, further technology development or alter R&D direction!

A side benefit is that just having and recognising the relevant knowledge of the adjacent patent landscape provides motivation and confidence for further investment of project time and resource.