Preliminary patent search
What is preliminary patent search?
The purpose of every patent search is to provide information regarding the relevant public information, which has become publicly available. A patent search may be conducted before filing a patent application as well as before filing an application for registration of a utility model. This information is specified in patent laws as a state of the art. it is extremely important for the patentability of inventions and for the drafting of patent applications and applications for the registration of utility models.
None of what has already become publicly available or part of the state of the art can be protected by a new patent or utility model.
Many of the world’s technical solutions can only be found in the patent literature. The plurality of them never appears on the market and remains only as publication in the patent documents. If an invention is not commercialized, it does not mean that the invention is new. Therefore the preliminary patent search in patent databases is extremely important. One of the purposes of the preliminary patent search is to indicate whether the idea or invention is new, industrially applicable and whether involves an inventive step.
The preliminary patent search is Advantage
The state of the art should be well known to anyone in the industry. Sometimes the production, sale, import, or export of a product may infringe the rights of third parties. That is why it is advisable to conduct such a search to establish whether a market provides “freedom to operate”.
Conducting of patent search clearly indicate the state of the art in certain technical field.
They are also a guide to what actions need to be taken to protect
the potential intellectual property. Different kinds of patent searches are useful for the establishment of intellectual property infringements. They are a substantive part of the process of preparing and filing such claims.
The search results indicate in what direction the competing companies are developing and what is the development in the field of technology of interest. Last but not least, after conducting the relevant searches, even if you do not own protected industrial property, you will find out if you have the freedom to operate in a certain territory and in a certain area of the market.
PRELIMINARY PATENT SEARCHES
Types of patent searches
As per the individual purposes and needs, it is possible to conduct different kinds of preliminary patent searches. Based on the obtained search results and analyses thereof it is possible to present before the client a clear view regarding the future actions and options.
1. State of the art search
This type of patent search provides information about the state of the art in a given technical field. It is important to note that the results obtained are relevant only to the time of conducting the search. Usually, the search of the state of the art is carried out before proceeding to the development of a technical solution. It serves to make an assessment of the new
activities, which shall be taken in the relevant field. As the results of this kind of search refer to one or more published documents, they could be mentioned in the process of drafting the description for the patent application for an invention or for the registration of a utility model.
2. Novelty search
This type of patent search provides information regarding the novelty of an invention. The novelty search indicates whether the technical decision is new, and what kind of protection could be obtained. This search is mandatory (in our opinion) if you intend to file an application. The information from one search like that shall save unnecessary
costs or investment to develop or protect something that is already known. The search provides an opportunity to assess the novelty. This is done by comparing and analyzing the search results with the proposed technical decision.
3. Novelty and inventive step search
A novelty and an inventive step search provides information not only about the novelty of a technical decision but also about the inventive step of a certain invention at the time of the search. This type of search indicates whether the technical decision is new and whether it involves an inventive step, and what kind of protection you could obtain provided
that you intend to apply for a patent for invention. The search will provide an opportunity to assess the novelty and the inventive step by comparing and analyzing the search results with the proposed technical solution.
4. Topic search in a given technical field
The thematic search provides information about the latest technological achievements on some topics in certain fields at the time of the search. This type of search indicates the development of a technology or competitors in a chosen field. It can also help in the search for potential partners. The results of this kind of search include massive lists of patent documents
according to the search criteria. Depending on the needs, the report of this kind of search may contain a complex analysis revealing the activity in the searched technical field. The search can provide valuable information for the development of a particular field.
5. Patent clarity search for the territory of Bulgaria
This type of search is better known as “freedom to operate” and provides information on current documents of protection that cover the subject at the time of the search. The freedom to operate search should be done
before the start of certain technical development or realization of products and methods. The benefit of it is to avoid infringing the rights of third parties.
Our experience
With extensive knowledge in the field of technical sciences, we at BV & Ko. perform various kinds of preliminary patent searches using specialized search platforms in patent databases with over 100 million published patent documents. Through our highly qualified experience gained over the years of working as patent experts and examiners, we can prepare the best search strategy when conducting a preliminary patent search. The numerous searches of inventions and innovations carried out by us guarantee the results sought by the client.
Our state of the art search or novelty and inventive step search provides you with a report containing an expert assessment of the most relevant documents. Each report contains up to 10 documents with short descriptions to them, as well as copies of the documents themselves. The reports may also be accompanied by our opinion on the patentability of the invention or technical decision subject of the search.
In order to be fully useful, we will inform you about what you need to provide us to obtain reliable search results. It is clear to us that many of our clients will find it difficult to navigate the different types of search and therefore after getting acquainted with the technical problem we will help you determine what kind of search you need.
It should be noted that we will approach each case with guaranteed professional competence, ethics, and responsibility. We do not comment on the issue of confidentiality or your know-how when conducting the preliminary patent search, as confidentiality stems from the nature of our work.
