Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Illinois

Patent Searching on Your Own

An individual inventor can do an initial "screening" type patent search to try to find out if the idea has been patented before. This is a good first step, but if the search does not turn up anything similar, an inventor should go to a patent attorney for a professional search, which will usually be done not by the attorney but rather by a professional searcher who does patent searching as his full time job.

For an individual inventors's screening search, the patent office website has all US patents ever issued online. From 1790-1976 only images are available. From 1976-now all patents are available in both full text and images for viewing and searching. All published patent applications are also online.

Steer clear of the invention submission and invention promotion firms (such as those that advertise on TV) for patent searching as they have a conflict of interest because they want to sell promotion services and know that they must tell you your invention is patentable to do so.

If you are in a hurry to market your invention and have the money to hire a patent attorney, then that is most efficient place to go as a patent attorney will generally give you a good search and ALSO a good opinion on whether you can expect a reasonable amount of protection sufficient to justify a patent application. Also a patent attorney can advise you about the advantages of a Provisional Patent Application as a short term protective measure if you have already disclosed your invention or are about to do so.