Why Search Prior Art

A patent application normally costs tens of thousands of dollars to prepare and file. Thus, it can be extremely worthwhile to spend a few thousand dollars on a prior-art search. This will give you an idea of whether the invention is patentable, before incurring the cost of a patent application.

A preliminary patentability search can also provide an early warning of possible third-party rights that might need to be taken into account. This may save you millions of dollar, in some circumstances.

There are many reasons you need to conduct a prior art search. For example, conducting prior art search can help you to:

• Determine whether a proposed idea is patentable;
• Provide prior art search result to your patent attorney to form a Freedom-to-Practice (FTP) or Freedom-To-Market (FTP) opinion before launching a new product/material;
• Assess a validity and/or infringement opinion;
• Understand your competitors' activity in your industry;
• Direct research and development expenditures;
• Make licensing determinations;
• Others.

Our prior art search services cover validity (invalidation) search, right-to-use search, novelty / patentability search, and state-of-the-art search. 85% of our Japanese patent searches are validity (invalidation) search.