A patent consulting firm typically has lawyers that provide patent -related services to multiple patent applicant customers at a time and in turn creating long-term relationship with their clients. The knowledge of patent consulting on the fundamental principles of patent law simplifies invention identification and provides the basis for decisions on patenting and cost effective management of patent portfolios suited to the market.

The patent consulting can provide a number of valuable services to the client in order to facilitate its patent application. Since patent laws could be quite complex, hiring a patent consulting firm can make the entire process seamless and easy.

When you desire patents for inventions it is understood that one needs to undergo several stages before finally acquiring the much coveted patent. The law recognizes five “rights” periods in the life of patents for inventions. These five periods one undergoes in acquiring patents for inventions are:
1. Invention conceived but not yet documented. This is the phase in applying patents for inventions when an inventor conceives an invention, but has not yet made any written, signed, dated, and witnessed record of it.
2. Invention documented but patent application not yet filed. After making a proper, signed, dated, and witnessed documentation of in applying patents for inventions the inventor has valuable rights against any inventor who later conceives the same invention and applies for a patent. This phase enables the inventor the legal right to sue and recover damages against anyone who immorally learns of the invention (for example, through industrial spying).
3. Patent pending (patent application filed but not yet issued). During the patents for inventions pending period, including the one-year period after a provisional patent application is filed the inventor can sue and recover damages against anyone who uses the invention.
4. In-force patent (patent issued but hasn’t yet expired). After the patent issues, the owner of the patents for inventions can bring and maintain a lawsuit for patent infringement against anyone who makes, uses, or sells the invention without permission.
5. Patent expired. After the patent expires, the owner of patents for inventions has no further rights. An expired patent remains a valid “prior-art reference” forever.

A patent consultant is typically a lawyer that has multiple patent applicant customers at a time, and it’s more about a long-term relationship than it is about a specific project. There will certainly be projects in the course of being a patent consultant but the general idea is that you’re an always-available resource they can call on for big matters or small pertaining to patents.

Patent protection provides security to the patent applicant against patent infringement. Patent infringement would occur if someone made, used or sold your patented door lock without your permission in a country that has granted you a patent, during the term of the patent.

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.