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Patent searches are categorized according to how the search results will be used.

Patent Search Types

Novelty Search

This search type identifies prior art references relevant to determining if an invention, as currently claimed, is novel under patent law.

Infringement Search

This search type assists in determining whether selling a product or providing a service might violate someone else's legally enforceable patent.

Validity Search

This search type assists in identifying prior art references that can be used to challenge the validity, scope, and enforceability of the claims of an issued patent.

How TCP Law Can Help

A patent attorney at TCP Law can perform a patent search and interpret the search results to help determine patentability, infringement, and validity. We leverage a large language AI-model platform that provides for either keyword or phonetic based patent searches.

If you have any general patent questions or want to discuss your specific patent matter, please contact me at john@tcplawfirm.com or at 917-612-1059.

It's essential to consider various factors when deciding whether a comprehensive search should be conducted before preparing and filing a patent application. The decision is not straightforward, as the scope of a comprehensive patent search can be limited by budget constraints, the searcher's expertise, and the fact that patent applications submitted in the last 18 months are not publicly available and thus won't be included in the search results. As a result, even an expensive comprehensive search cannot guarantee that all prior art references relevant to the claims of a patent application will be uncovered.

However, a more reasonable basic search can be valuable in the preparation of a patent application. The results of a basic search generally focus on primary references that anticipate an embodiment of the invention as envisioned. These primary references can help an applicant understand the current patent landscape for the relevant technology. It's important to note that results from a basic search may not include secondary references that may be combined with primary references to render a claimed embodiment of the invention obvious. Based on the findings of a basic search, the patent application can be crafted to include additional limitations and embodiments that may help overcome the primary references identified in the search results. Additionally, the search results can provide insight into the potential references cited to support rejections that may be asserted in a first office action.

At TCP Law, we use an AI-based search platform that supports both traditional keyword-based searches and semantic-based searches. The semantic-based search provides for a search based on an independent claim draft that includes the limitations of an embodiment of the invention. Moreover, the platform will analyze one or more selected references to identify the claim limitations missing from the selected references.

Comprehensive and Basic Patent Searches

Patent Search

A patent search helps assess whether an invention is patentable and understand the patent landscape of the invention's technology field. Performing a patent search involves finding and reviewing relevant existing patents, published patent applications, and other publicly available documents (referred to as "prior art") to find references similar to the invention's elements.

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