search for patent pending

You can get a reasonable patent search for a few hundred dollars. An in-depth comprehensive search will cost more (to $ 1,000).

But before you all the money on a patent application for which your invention to practice, or building an expensive prototype, you can limit your search to all on your own.

Thanks to the Internet, it is fairly easy to take the first steps on your own patent search. The USPTO has a very detailed website with patent searching capabilities. Best of all, it's free. That is the number one place to begin your search in determining whether your invention is new. The USPTO's website makes it easy to examine patents, all the way back to the 1970s. You can use the older patents from their archives, but depending on the nature of the invention, you may not need to get so far back (technology has its limits you know!).

You can begin a very preliminary patent search, write all the words you can think that your invention. You would then want a keyword search using the USPTO's database.

Remember that you have to consider patents disclosing inventions, not just like yours, but are similar to yours. Please note all these and then study. Check on existing patents and take notes of the main ones. You should also print it out and start a stack of relevant prior art.

By studying existing and similar patents you may learn many important facts in addition to determining whether your invention is new or not. These facts could have other uses for your product, finding potential licensees or successors (people who buy the rights to the invention from you), or other product features that you have not yet thought of. You can also change the background sections and the data that others with similar inventions included in their patents. This can help you find information relating to your invention, without being everywhere all on your own. All this will help to facilitate the process, help you to create a unique invention, and give you a competitive advantage in the market.

As you can imagine, to discover some important information as you search through inventions that are similar to you. You need a system for keeping everything organized. If you have not already done so, you should take a notebook with all the important lessons have you discovered about your market and your preliminary patent search.

This notebook May only to be priceless!

Copyright © 2005 Lisa Parmley - Patent AgentReceive your free subscription to our Inventor of the Bulletin. It is full of tips on how to patent and market your invention. Patent Your Inventions