May 2021

It is natural for an inventor to presume that the brilliant brainwave which resulted in an innovative idea is ‘original’ in all respects and no body has thought of this before. It is also natural for the inventor to proceed to protect his idea by patenting it. But before acquiring a patent, the innovator or inventor has to find out whether his idea has been patented before. To do this he needs to do a patent search and for that there are patenting agencies like Invent Help that could help.

It is the responsibility of the United States Patent office to grant patents for any invention or innovation. Since there is no dearth of new inventors and no shortage of patent applications, the office is flooded with more than 350,000 new patent applications every year. To hasten the process of patenting and also to reduce their work load, the USPTO encourages inventors to do the patent search themselves. The USPTO lists all patents that have been granted since 1970 and a patent search can be done online by typing related keywords. This service is available free.

Before conducting any free online patent search, it is important to remember that the USPTO database contains some 33 million patent documents which are regularly updated every week. According to instructions given in the USPTO website, there are seven steps to do the patent search, which must be followed one after the other. Using the USPTO database, you can not however access patents issued prior to 1976, unless you start the search with the class and subclass alone. Therefore it is necessary for you to identify the class and subclass of your invention to do a search of pre-1976 patents also.

In case your online search does not yield any positive result, it could be a cost-effective and a wise decision to consult a reputed patent attorney or patent agent. These are skilled, experienced and knowledgeable professionals, who can help you with patent searches as well as advise you on other patent-related issues. Since they also double up as your legal counselor and spokesperson, they could even argue on your behalf and fight your case, in case the USPTO rejects your patent application. Instances are not rare when further design alterations and modifications are done on a design patent and re-submitted for their approval.

A rough and preliminary search done by a patent agency like Invent Help can reveal whether your invention idea has been patented even at a conceptual level as explained on Invent Help reviews. A patent search costs a few hundred dollars, of course the cost varies according to the nature of the invention. You also have the option to have a comprehensive patent search done, which will cost you around a thousand dollars.

It is very common that a patent will get rejected as the idea or invention, however novel or brilliant it may seem apparently, has been patented before. Thus it is wise to check whether the idea has been patented or not, before starting to develop a working model. Once you know that a patent has already been granted, you can further work on how to make your idea or invention different and unique, which will be treated as good as new.

What are the four necessary parts of a good patent definition? These same four items are also necessary parts to file a patent, be of economic value and prevent your invention from being stolen. They are:

The invention must be novel

Being novel means that it can not be known by others or used by others before the inventor claims to have invented it. The invention can not be previously patented or publicly disclosed before the inventor’s claimed invention. In other words it can not be an infringement of someone else’s patented work. The patent must be applied for within 1 year after public disclosure or use. Professional patenting firms like InventHelp can help.

The invention must not be obvious

This means that the invention can not be a clear replacement for an original. The proposed invention can not be obvious to a person with average skill in the knowledge area of the invention. An example might be a red toy car. A blue toy car would be an obvious extension of a red toy car. However a toy car that transforms into a robot is not an obvious extension of a red toy car.

Very basic level language must be used

Supplied drawings must be clear and sufficient for a comprehensive understanding of the invention. A person with skill in the knowledge area must be able to understand the invention completely, in order for it to be patentable. If fear of having the invention stolen motivates the inventor to leave out essential elements of the invention, then it is not patentable. Trade secrets may be a better alternative in this case. However trade secrets can be very difficult to protect especially from disgruntled employees.

The patent claims must be clear and specific

The patent claims are the most difficult, but the most important part of a patent. They are the intellectual property that you are requesting the patent office to protect. These claims must be specific and clear, otherwise the patent office will not accept them. Even if the patent office does accept them, they must be defensible in court. Only an experienced patent lawyer or patent agency such as Invent Help would likely be able to foresee potential problems with claims. Many parts of the patent can be done by the inventor, but the claims are not one of them. This is the area where a patent lawyer can really be worth the cost.