Avoiding Patent Reproduction

Avoiding Patent Reproduction

First time inventors often have a lot of questions that need answering. “What paperwork do I need to file?” “Should I get a patent lawyer?” “How much money will I need to sell my product?” “How do I determine if my invention already exists?”

All of these are legitimate questions. However, before you pursue getting a patent, arguably the most important question is the latter: “How do I determine if my invention already exists?” Luckily, in the present, there are a number of ways to make sure you haven’t reproduced someone else’s patented creation. Whether you’re an independent inventor or are in charge of making sure that your company’s many new technologies are recognized by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), you can use similar methods to determine if you could be making a copycat product. In addition, if you’ve made a career out of inventing, there are many sources available to stay on top of recent patents filed so you know what trends and technologies are fashionable and marketable.

The first place to look for filed patents is in online databases. The advent of the internet has brought with it a number of places online where information about patents that are currently in filing process or have been granted can be obtained. Such websites as Patentmonkey, Freepatentsonline, Wikipatents, or espacenet contain extensive databases of patents filed by many sources. While these websites are arguably good quality, they don’t always update recent patent activity. If a patent has been bought or sold, or if patents have been based upon prior creations, it’s likely that sort of information has not been updated in the databases, and when you go to file a patent, you may come across some surprises.

One way to ward off these unexpected obstacles is to expand your search. You could, for example, run a patent search on a number of these websites to see if there are any changes to the patents listed in one database and not the other. You could also compare your results to the information that the USPTO database has, which is also accessible online. Nevertheless, if a patent has been filed via a PCT – an international patent application – you may need to expand your search.

You can start by looking at court cases in the United States. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit offers a website where you can search for cases related to patents. The information available is comprehensive and is kept very much up to date. Another great national website is the Kuester Law Technology Law Resource website. This center for intellectual property includes news about patenting, intellectual property lawmaking, and pertinent inventions that could be of interest to you as an inventor.

If you’re more interested in obtaining an international patent, there are also a number of places you can check for prior creations. One is the Hieros Gamos website, which contains a well-populated international directory of lawyers, legal jobs, court cases, articles and any other legal-related information one may need. This website is quite thorough, and it may be difficult to navigate at first, but some may find that this is the best one-stop-shop on the web for patent review. If you find Hieros Gamos to be too thorough, you can run a search through the World Intellectual Property Association. Unlike Hieros Gamos, this website is targeted for those who are only interested in the patenting process.

You can also go to patenting websites of other countries. China, Canada, Australia, even the European Union have their own patent databases to review. If you choose to file an international patent, the searches will be done regardless of this process, and they can take up to sixteen months to complete. Therefore, although doing the searches on your own through a number of web portals may take some time, it’ll save quite a bit of time if your invention has already been patented.