enterprise patent: protect your invention
Do your own patent searching
Do your own patent searching ($0)
Good patent searching can be expensive ($600-2500+)
I can do patent searches (very specific)($500-1500+)
I can outsource patent searches
US searchers (some topics I prefer to outsource) ($600-2000+)
Low-cost foreign searchers (cheapest, but hit and miss) ($300-1250+)
Searchers for Asian databases ($1000-$2500+)
Tips for doing your own patent searching
Try a variety of websites: Google, Goggle patents, European/worldwide patent search, US Patent Office search page, Japanese patent searching in English, Korean patent searching in English, Chinese patent searching in English, World Intellectual Property Organization
Try different combinations of keywords:
Several broad terms
Several broad terms and a narrow term
One broad term and several narrow terms
Combinations of broad and narrow terms
Read enough of the references to determine relevance
Keep a list of the most relevant references you find
Look through list of “cited by” references
Spend at least 4 hours and, preferably, 6 to 20 hours doing searches
If you find an exact match, work on a new idea
If you find close (but not exact) references, call me or another registered patent agent or patent attorney
You still may have an invention:
If the difference is nontrivial
If the difference makes it work much better
If the difference required substantial experimentation
If you had to overcome significant hurdles to implement the difference