Your first step when you get a patent idea is using free patent searches to know if there are related inventions out there and to see if you can protect your idea. This is important due to the following:
1) Free patent searches documents your idea and serves as a record of invention date.
2) Free patent searches prevent you wasting time on developing an idea that already exists.
Inventor need not solicit the help of a patent counsel to conduct a free patent searches. They can do the work themselves and search for free patent searches sites. For an inventor to be able to start his or her own Free patent searches, he or she needs to access the U.S. Patent Office Database at http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html.
Search patent is one of the most basic thing an inventor has to do when applying for patent. Search patent enables the inventor to know if his invention is already patented or not. Search patent can determine if the proposed invention merits the patentability as set by the statutory conditions.
The most basic place to do search patent is accessing database of the US Patent and Trademark Office worldwide. There are designated patent libraries which one can use too. During search patent, an inventor should compare a collection of prior patents, printed publications, journals or other technical articles with the invention. These references serve as basis for determining the patentability of an invention. But before doing so, he or she must examine each of these “references” in order to ensure that they are valid.
