One common reason a patent may exist but the product may not be on the market is because the previous inventor was simply unsuccessful in taking the patent to the market. This can happen for a variety of reasons. Maybe the product was ahead of its time, maybe the inventor ran out of funds and the project became abandoned, perhaps the inventor did not have the right connections or stamina necessary to see the project to conclusion. Whatever the case may be, there can be a variety of reasons why a patent has been applied for or issued on an invention that never made it to the market. While surveying the market is a wise first step, frequently there are patents lurking that have simply not been used to develop commercial products. This can be for a variety of reasons, and makes patent searches critically important.
Doing your own search could be a great idea instead
While doing your own patent search as an inventor is a very good idea, and perhaps much easier now than ever thanks to advances in made with Google Patent Search, patent searching is an art that requires enormous practice.
1. First, if you can find something yourself then you save a lot of time and the cost of hiring someone to do a professional patent search. Second, the more patents you read in the area where you are inventing the better. Reading patents and about the inventions of others in a space where you are inventing will pay great dividends. The more you know the more you understand.
2. Second, the more patents you read in the area where you are inventing the better. Reading patents and about the inventions of others in a space where you are inventing will pay great dividends. The more you know the more you understand.
Are patent searches really necessary?
The patent process can be expensive, so the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of money preparing and filing an application when there is easy to find knock-out prior art that will prevent a patent, or at the very least make any patent that is obtained extremely narrow. For this reason many inventors and businesses will choose to begin the process by paying for some kind of patent search.
If knock-out prior art is found then the expense of a patent application has been saved. If no serious road blocks are found the patent search can and will normally lead to a better, stronger patent application and potentially smoother application process. The reason patent searches lead to a better, strong patent application is because the first application filed is absolutely critical. All aspects of your invention must be disclosed, nothing new can be added without compromising the all-important filing date.
What about cheap patent searches?
The one big problem I have with recommending low cost patent search services is how will you know whether the search you get back is low quality or not? It is certainly true that sometimes it will be obvious on its face when you get a low quality patent search. Additionally, if you only pay for a search you are going to get just a list of patents that are relevant, or maybe copies of the patents. When you buy a search you do not get a patentability report, nor do you get to talk to someone to help you interpret the results of the search. Most inventors want and need to have the results interpreted and explained by either a patent attorney or a patent agent, so be careful when you pay under $400 for a search. For this price you just cannot get both a competent search and a professional opinion, and I doubt you could receive a competent search alone for this amount.
