Types of Patent Searches
| earch Type | Purpose | Coverage | Comments |
| · State-of-the-Art | Identify general and background art for a particular technology | Patents and non-patent literature. Not exhaustive. | Gives a broad picture to help guide research |
| · Patentability, Novelty | Identify art which may affect the patentability of an invention | Patents and non-patent literature. Multiple data sources. | Narrower in scope than State-of-Art. Recommended before writing patent application |
| · Invalidity, Opposition | Identify prior art which may impact the claims of a specific patent | Patents and non-patent literature. Employ creative strategies to elucidate previously undiscovered art before filing date of patent. | Helps remove blocking patents by anticipating claims of an invention. Establishes solidity of patent portfolio, e.g. for licensing or company acquisition |
| · Infringement, Freedom-to-Operate, Right-to-Use, Domination | Identify patents or applications which may cover a proposed product or process | Covers patents only and which are still in force. Include both narrow and broad concepts | Often country specific. Analysis of claims. |
| · Patent Watch | Monitor new patent activity or status changes to existing patents | Patents only | Updates at regular intervals or rapid-alerting when activity occurs |
| · Technology Update | Monitor latest technology developments by subject | Patents and/or non-patent literature | Regular updates, weekly, monthly or other chosen frequency |
| · Non-Patent Literature Reference Query; Biomedical Information | Research into specific questions asked by biomedical staff regarding safety, clinical, regulatory areas, or by Research Scientists, etc. | Biomedical databases or other databases as appropriate | A quick turnaround on these types of searches can normally be accommodated |
| · Inventor, Author or Assignee | Identify references to a particular inventor, author, assignee or affiliate | Patents and/or non-patent literature | A quick turnaround on these types of searches can normally be accommodated |
| · Legal Status | Determine whether a patent is in force, abandoned, etc. | Specialist legal status online databases (e.g. ‘INPADOC’) and/or patent office registers | A quick turnaround on these types of searches can normally be accommodated |
| · Patent Family | Identify the first or ‘basic’ patent and subsequent ones claiming the same priority | Patent databases such as ‘World Patents Index’, ‘INPADOC’ and ‘Chemical Abstracts’ | A quick turnaround on these types of searches can normally be accommodated |
| · Cited or Citing References | Identify references | Patent databases, e.g. ‘Derwent Patents Citation Index’ and non-patent literature, e.g. Science Citation Index | An alternative method useful in identifying additional state-of-the-art or invalidating prior art |
| · Collections | ‘Collect’ prior art in a particular area of technology | Patents only. Often conducted within selected patent classifications | Useful for directing research or identifying gaps for patenting strategies |
| · Patent Map | Show patent landscape to uncover trends, gaps or overlap in patent coverage and links between patents | Patents only | Useful for directing research or identifying gaps for patenting strategies |
| · Scientific Business | Identify financial, organizational, statistical, commercial and other information for technology based organizations | Business, news and other sources | Supply of raw data and/or overall analysis |
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