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The Truth About Patent Searches
The patent search is not to be taken lightly. When properly done, it can save the inventor thousands of dollars and several months of time in the patent office. While one obvious purpose of the search is to determine whether an invention is new or not, a more important and often overlooked purpose is to determine the breadth of patent claims we can reasonably anticipate a typical Patent Examiner to consider allowable. If the claims we are likely to have found allowable are broad enough to provide an inventor with a business advantage, and if others are likely to copy the inventor's invention once it is released into the marketplace, then I recommend that patent protection be sought. Proper claim drafting depends on a good search. Without knowing what is in the prior art, one's claims cannot be written to avoid rejections based on the prior art and the Applicant is nearly guaranteed of having their application rejected, thus necessitating an amendment, further waiting, and increased costs.
Many patent professionals "farm out" patent search work to other persons whose only job function is to do patent searches. While this is good from the standpoint that the searcher may "crank out" work pretty quickly, and the attorney gets to upcharge the job as a handling fee, the person who writes the patent application (usually the attorney), is not directly involved in the searching of the prior art. He trusts the searcher to have done a good job, and then bases all of the subsequent work on this. If the searcher didn't appreciate certain aspects of the invention owing to, say, losses in communication added by involving yet another person, then the quality of any and all subsequent work may be in serious peril. This happens every day.
Wouldn't it make more sense if the person who was going to write the application perform the search ? That is exactly what we do.
Here are some links which savvy inventors may find helpful for preliminary searching. Please read on, below.
A good search will run about $ 500 on the bottom end for a US only search, and about $ 800 for a combined US/European search. The high end is about $ 800 - 900 for a US Search and about $ 1500 for the combined US/Eurpoean. I once had a client who said he paid $ 5500 to a law firm in Michigan and all he got for his money was a patent search ! Don't overpay, but don't underpay. Our current fee for a US only search and combined US/European search is $ 495 and $ 795 respectively.
When you use us, you don't just get a search. You get our candid, experienced opinion about your invention. You get a written Search Report, including copies of relevant Prior Art Patents. In the event your business decision includes seeking a patent and you use our services, we will do the IDS (Information Disclosure Statement under 37 CFR 1.56) at no cost. (Other practitioners charge about $300 for this.)
We get the European Patent Application art related to your invention. The Patent Examiners in the US almost always cite Eurpoean prior art when examining a typical patent application. If your "professional" searcher hasn't searched the Eurpoean art, then there can be little reason to pay him. It is, in my opinion, unexcusable bad practice to not consider the European art when conducting a patent search, because when the patent application is written, the claims will have to be drafted in order to avoid certain rejections the Examiner will raise. If you haven't considered the European Art, then you run the high risk of an extra rejection and the associated time delays and added expense. I CAN ALMOST GUARANTEE YOU THAT AT THAT STAGE OF THE GAME IT WILL COST YOU THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN ADDITIONAL PROSECUTION FEES, OR LOST PATENT PROTECTION TIME. So it might appear as though you save a couple hundred bucks in the beginning, only to lose valuable length of your patent term at extra delay in addition to added costs. DON'T be fooled by cheap searches - they are not worth your time or money. Consider what John Ruskin (1819-1900) said:
"It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."
How true.
All searches are performed by either myself or my Associate in whom I have full confidence and trust. I take my high standards of professional and ethical responsibility very seriously, and I guarantee that your patent experience will be rewarding when you enlist our assistance. I will not hesitate to sign confidentiality agreements at the request of Clients (many other service providers won't sign them - BEWARE !!! ) and I will do whatever is necessary to make an Inventor comfortable. We can, in certain circumstances, do the search right at the Patent Office using the same files which the Examiner has access to. We can speak with the Examiner, showing them the Client's invention, and find out which files they would look for prior art. They tell me, and by this the best possible patent search can be had.
Although a committed professional, I tend to deal in a somewhat casual format, like a country doctor. I learned long ago that to succeed in satisfying Clients' needs, one needs to be highly customer-driven, i.e., listen to your Client. A lot of people have trouble listening these days. Not us. You won't be "just another number". My goals are: 1) to get you a patent quickly at the lowest price consistent with high quality; and 2) to point you towards bona fide resources for selling your invention as quickly as possible. Satisfying these two goals will make you a satisfied Client.
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Thank you for visiting.
Yours very truly, EMAIL ME BY CLICKING HERE
Christopher J. Whewell, Trustee
(512) 763-1142
