Work With An Expert Prior Art Reference And Patent Search Firm

Protect your idea and streamline the intellectual property (IP) prosecution process with an expert patent search firm in the United States. Accurately finding prior arts can seem like a tedious, near-impossible task. By working with the right provider, the process appears much simpler, smoother, and efficient. These experienced firms know exactly how to reveal similar artifacts from existing patents, protected source code, blog posts, news article, or published manuals. As a novel inventor yourself, you should know how to secure a USPTO patent search with a reputable agency. This way, you can accelerate your commercialization pipeline, reduce redundant research, and gain accurate insights into competitor activity. To get started now, read on to learn about working with an expert prior art reference and patent search firm.

Hire An Expert Agency

Kickstart the patent search process by hiring a reputable, top-rated agency. Before choosing any agency, ensure that you hire a USPTO registered, certified patent agent or attorney. Specifically, you want to choose a practitioner that offers high success rates, technical expertise, strategic guidance, and rapid prosecution speeds. Also, you should get a better understanding of their end-to-end costs. This includes everything from patent searching, drafting, filing, and prosecution. Another important qualification is the attorney-inventor fit. Ultimately, you should only partner with an IP lawyer that aligns with your goals, vision, and mission. Certainly, hire an expert agency to get an accurate, affordable USPTO patent search.

Brainstorm Similar Keywords

With the help of your expert patent search firm, start brainstorming similar keywords. Jot down a list of terms that clearly describe and depict your novel invention. Try your best to avoid overly-broad terms like “machine,” “tool,” “equipment.” Instead, focus on terms that detail the invention’s purpose, physical composition, core utility, and manufacturing process. During this brainstorming phase, your lawyer may refer to a technical thesaurus or dictionary. This way, they can uniquely identify your product with the right set of terms. Surely, brainstorm similar keywords with the assistance of your prior art reference and patent search firm.

Start Searching Broadly

Now, you are ready to start searching relevant prior art reference terms. Again, this process will be made much easier with the help of an expert certified patent search company. There are online search engines where IP lawyers can easily enter your brainstormed search terms. These platforms scan issued and pending intellectual property – as well as non-patent literature. This way, you can find comparable inventions that lie in academic papers, thesis dissertations, technical journals, or published newspapers. Since this phase is crucial for prior art reference discovery, it absolutely cannot be rushed. Your attorney may spend several hours during this initial research stage. Indeed, start searching broadly for terms relevant for your USPTO patent search.

Search By Classification

At this point, your USPTO patent search firm will begin analyzing by classification. During this stage, your IP attorney will analyze categorization systems like the Cooperative Patent Classification. These systems are used to organize intellectual property assets based on their use case or utility. Within the cooperative classification, there are several specific technical groupings – all related to a central subject matter. Absolutely, provisional, design, and utility patent search firms analyze classification when preparing your report.

Keep In-Depth Search Notes

Throughout the patent search process, keep detailed, thorough, and in-depth notes. It always helps to document and keep record of all your prior art searching efforts. Specifically, jot down the terms you used, parameters applied, as well as the databases investigated. If you don’t have access to this information, you can always get it from your patent search company. Keeping organized records helps to avoid redundant, duplicate work down-the-line. It can also help when highlighting the unique, original qualities of your novel idea. Definitely, keep in-depth notes when working with an expert patent search firm in the USA.

There are several steps to start working with a US-based prior art reference and patent search firm. Start off by hiring an expert patent search agency. Next, begin brainstorming keywords that are comparable to your invention. From here, start searching terms broadly. This will make you adequately prepared for more in-depth stages of your USPTO utility patent search. Then, work with your patent attorney to begin searching by classification. Throughout this process, you should also work diligently to keep detailed search notes. Follow the points highlighted above to learn about working with an expert prior art reference and patent search firm.