Prior Art Search - Basic Search Guidelines

Whats is Prior art search?

Technology may be patented if it is novel, patentable as per patent office guidelines and non obvious to person skilled in the art.

Prior art search identify existence of invention before filing to avoid time and money for inventors if the invention has prior art references.

How to perform basic prior art search:

1. Search publicly available databases such as google patent search, USPTO, EPO, etc.

2. Identify similar/relevant keywords for invention to search database.

3. Search non patent literature such as google scholar.

4. Identify relevant patent classification CPC/IPC and limit search with combination of keyword and classes to limit search.

5. Paid patent databases can be searched with advanced search options to reach relevant results.

When to perform Prior art search:

1. Before filing patent to identify related/similar inventions. it can save time and money for inventors.

2. Defending infringement litigation by you product against an existing invention to invalidate patent that plaintiff claims.