Patent Searches

The patentability search is the most common type of patent search. Lambert Shortell & Connaughton conducts patantability searches when a client has an invention which he or she is interested in patenting and desires to determine if anyone has previously invented anything similar or identical.

Before expending much effort and expense toward developing an invention, certainly before applying for a patent, Lambert Shortell & Connaughton recommends that clients allow us to perform a patentability search to determine whether their idea is already patented and is both truly novel and non-obvious based on our searches of USPTO and other databases, including international. These searches have no date constraints on the prior art.

The idea behind an invalidity search is that the Patent Office may have issued the patent in error. Patent Examiners sometimes miss a relevant piece of prior art and this results in an issued patent with claims that should not have been allowed.

One way to successfully defend against an allegation of infringement is to invalidate the patent in question. If an invalidity search can locate “prior art” that teaches the same thing as a patent claim, or renders it obvious, those claims will be invalid and thus cannot be infringed.

Infringement searches are conducted to see if a proposed product or invention “infringes” any active patents.

Lambert Shortell & Connaughton recommends this in-depth search and analysis whenever the firm or the client becomes aware of an active patent containing a description similar to the client’s proposed or existing product.