Value of Searching

Published by april at August 22, 2017

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If you have an invention, it’s advantageous to know what came before, particularly if your invention may actually be new and not obvious over what has been done before.
The best way to know if a patent application is worthwhile is to search for prior art.
CCPA believes that doing a patentability search for a client, without a clear understanding by the client, can be a conflict of interest. If we do a search and find nothing to hinder your idea, and you pay us, and then the Patent Office finds applicable art we did not find before, we may have a liability issue. We prefer that you do it, get a third party to do it, or sign a waiver that we may miss some applicable art.
Not everything everywhere can be searched. The nature of prior art, being anything previously available to the public, means that a perfect search is a never-ending process.
There is no one better equipped to do the prior art search than you, the inventor. We at CCPA are happy to point out all of the sources and tools you need, and how to do the search.