Assists in establishing whether elements of your product, design or the process that you want to use, are already protected by another party. This type of search helps to avoid costly legal challenges and misguided product launches. Our report will list publications which you may risk infringing. This list could also help you identify patents or designs to licence, or perhaps change how you develop your product or influence where you manufacture and market.

Patents within the infringement period that are not in force, but which may clear your right-to-use by virtue of being in the public domain, are also reported. We can also provide the legal status for any IP identified. When this type of search is followed up with a validity search against any highly relevant patents identified, it is sometimes referred to in the USA and Canada as a clearance, right to make, right to use, or right to practice search.

Assesses the patentability of your new product or process or the validity of a particular design. Our search will look to find all documents relevant to its novelty, or obviousness in the light of the discovered prior art. This type of search is performed before filing or registration, or before seeking commercialisation. It can help to decide how you should draft your patent claims or whether to file an application at all, thereby reducing unnecessary costs and delays in the filing process.

Confirms whether a patent or design (either yours or a competitor's) is valid with respect to the prior art. For patent validity this may cover both patent and non-patent literature. If relevant prior documentation is found that was not located by the examiner, the patent can then be opposed or revoked on the basis that it was incorrectly granted.

Validity searches are therefore useful if a competitor is considering infringement proceedings. Alternatively, if you want to take legal action for infringement of your own patent, or are approaching a company to arrange a licensing deal, a validity search may be required to decide if the patent in question is vulnerable to legal challenge.

We can also verify the date of public availability of documents if this is required for court proceedings.

These searches are carried out using a technique called Convergence Searching, which starts with highly focussed class, keyword or combination searches through selected patent sources and uses promising results as the springboard for extending the search within the allotted time. Our Pre-Filing or Novelty Searches can help to establish the scope of claims to be drafted and to avoid unnecessary office actions, in circumstances where the cost of a full patentability search is not warranted.

The cost of a Pre-Filing Budget Search is £600.

We offer a similar pre-filing service for pharmaceutical compounds in the case where broad Markush-style claims are being filed and you wish to check that these are not too widely formulated. Chemical Structure Pre-Filing Searches are somewhat more expensive due to the database costs involved and each request would be discussed with you before proceeding.

Establishes what has already been done and what solutions are available in a technology area. With so many innovative products and processes under research or development, research and funding organisations find it useful to see an overview.

We have significant expertise in searching Registered Design rights, both by holder and by subject matter. Territories covered include the UK, EU Community Designs, US Design Patents, International Industrial Designs, plus Australia, Belarus, Canada, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan (with certain limitations), New Zealand, Russia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the Ukraine and others. Searches would be done for non-registered designs which may effect the validity of Registered Designs.