Patent Search is done to determine if the proposed invention indeed meets the statutory conditions of patentability. The Patent Search was used to be limited to the Patent Search Office database records of prior patents and publications. But the Internet and the recognition of business method patents paved the way for changes in patent searches beyond the Patent Search Office. But still, most patent searches are conducted by starting with the electronic databases of the various Patent Offices worldwide.

Patent database is a collection of information pertaining to patents. It is always good to refer to do patent search in a patent database before investing thousands of dollars in patent application. This way inventors can save money if during the search in patent database they found out that the invention is a ‘prior art’. All is not lost for the inventor though if that happens because he or she can always claims certain elements of the proposed invention to be patentable.