Conducting a Patentability Search

When you think you have an original idea or product, it is important to quickly patent the idea or product to protect your legal control over it. To do this, you must make sure that no one else already has a patent on your idea or product. However, a preliminary patent search can be time consuming and require certain honed skills. Fortunately, the intellectual property lawyers of Gagnon, Peacock & Vereeke, P.C., have the experience to perform a patentability search for each of their clients.

Seven Steps in a Patentability Search

The United States Patent and Trademark Office recommends following seven steps for performing a preliminary patent search. These steps include:

1. Brainstorming descriptive terms for your invention
2. Use terms to find class / subclass in Patent Classification Index
3. Verify relevancy of class / subclass by cross-referencing Patent Classification Schedules
4. Confirm the scope of the subclass
5. Find, review, and retrieve patent documents
6. Using classification identified in (4), locate Cooperative Patent Classifications (CPC) using statistical mapping; retrieve all necessary documents
7. Search for CPC class schemes; find any relevant additional patent documents and retrieve

This search, as you can see, involves in-depth research skills and access to relevant resources. Enlisting the help of an attorney during this process could be critical to learning about your potential patent as quickly as possible, in addition to saving you time and effort.

Contact an Intellectual Property Attorney in Dallas

If you want to pursue a patent for an idea or product, speak with the Dallas intellectual property attorneys of Gagnon, Peacock & Vereeke, P.C., today. Call our offices at (214) 824-1414 in Dallas to set up an initial consultation about your idea or product patent search.