Patent Search: An Overview
Contents
The term patentability search refers to the search of existing patents and other publicly available documents to locate the closest existing things to your invention. The Patent office scrutinized the patent application by comparing the claimed invention with the prior art, and a patent can be issued if the patent examiner is convinced that an invention is new and not an obvious combination of things in the prior art. This article is based on how do the Patent search be conducted and the benefits of patent search.
It is the first step in the process of Patent registration. The only purpose of a patent search is to determine how different an invention is from what already exists in the prior art. Moreover, a patent search will not tell you if your invention infringes someone else’s patent.
A patent search is often the first thing that is done in the patent process. The purpose of it is to determine how different an invention is from what already exists in the prior art. It will not tell you if your invention infringes someone else’s patent.
How to conduct a Patent search in India?
On inPASS, there is no cost for doing a patent search in India. It can be conducted through the patent database of India available on http://ipindiaservices.gov.in/publicsearch/
It depends on the patent application status whether a patent search can be done under the two publication or not. These two kinds of publication are published or granted. Not only this, rather the user can choose the desired publication type by clicking on the checkbox. There, a user can find many categories such as:
| Categories |
|---|
| Application date |
| Title |
| Abstract |
| Claims |
| Description |
| Application Number |
| Patent Number [For Granted Patent] |
| Applicant Name |
| Inventor Name |
| Inventor Country |
| Inventor Address |
| Filing Office |
| International Patent Classification (IPC) |
| PCT Application number |
| PCT Publication number |
| Field of Invention |
| Patent Assignee Country |
All these categories have a drop down box from which the user has access to change the category. There is also a search box next to every category where of course the user can enter the keyword of the patent that he wants to view. You can enter a query in more than one box, the applicant can run very precise patent searches. Given below is the captcha code which the user has to clear once the required keywords are entered in the respective boxes:
Keyword Search
The first and foremost step is to find and collect the specific keywords which should be relevant to your invention or patent. Make sure that you use such keywords in the search parameters like title, abstract, claims and description. The patent search results will be shown in two columns. The application number, title, application date, and status will be displayed in the left column and the details like bibliographic data, specification, and status based on the selection of a row in the left column will be displayed in the right column. In addition, there is a limitation to display the number of search records up to 1000 and 25 records per page.
Applicant Name Search
You are allowed to search for patent applications by entering the name of the applicant against the relevant row. All you need to do is just enter the name of the applicant and press search. Automatically, the result will display the title of all inventions published or granted in the name that you entered.
Inventor Name Search
Similarly, you can also search the inventor’s name in the relevant row and the result display. You can also read help option given to learn more about how to use Boolean operators and wildcards.
Patent E-register
You can easily check the legal status of the granted patent through the Indian patent search database. By entering the patent number along with the displayed code and having click on it you can see the E- register. Ultimately, a result of the legal status of the patent will be displayed with the next date of the renewal and bibliographic data of patent.
Application Status
As it is similar to patent grant search, you are allowed to check the status of the patent application through the Indian patent search database. Just enter the application number, applicant number, date of filing, priority date, title of the invention, publication date and also application status in the application status tab. With parallel to this, you will be able to see all the documents relevant to the patent application in the ‘View documents’ tab provided at the bottom page of the result.
There are separate columns that give the user the inventor’s and the applicant’s Name, Address, Country, and Nationality.
Patent Status
Given below is an Abstract and a complete specification of the Patent:
- Abstract
- Complete Specification
An abstract column has a summary of the patent application that the user can see and a complete specification comes under the abstract column that gives the details about the specification if the user has mentioned any. Last but not least, there is an option through which the user can view the application status. If this is opened, the user can get the application details.
Importance of Patent Search prior to filing
Given below are the ways in which patent search is significant for you:
- check whether you are infringing another person’s intellectual property;
- check if there are any security interests over a patent; and
- conduct market analysis on other intellectual property or competitor products.
Conclusion
There are several avenues and methods to protect our invention and securing a patent is, of course, one of them. But securing a patent is not that simple and straightforward process. This process can become more complex and lengthy if you are looking to secure your patent in multiple jurisdictions. Our experts of LegalRaasta have an extensive experience in this field and we would be happy to assist with protecting your invention. Give us a call at 8750008585 or send your query on Email: [email protected].
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