In Patent the Prior art means any invention which is similar to that of your invention.

Prior Art Search is a method of searching prior art which is similar to the invention of the applicant.

No, but Patent Prior Art Search is very important from the point of view of an inventor because before going to the filing stage, the applicant should have a sound knowledge about his competitors and his chances of procuring a successful patent registration.

It takes approximately three to four days to conduct a thorough patent prior art search and to prepare a report.

We advise inventors to conduct the Patent Search before filing of the Patent Application as it might help you in saving lots of money and time. If you have already filed the provisional patent, even then you can conduct a patent prior art search to see if it is worth filing the non provisional patent specification or not.

Prior Art Search will help you in many ways. Prior Art Search will provide you a list of all similar inventions over which patent has been granted or is pending which will help you to know about competitors. Prior art search helps you evaluate your chances of successful patent grant by listing all the prior knowledge related to your invention. Prior Art Search will include list of registered patents which can pose a threat for you if you commercially launch your invention.

To conduct a successful Patent Search it is important that the person who is conducting the search should have sound knowledge regarding the invention which will help in finding similar invention. It is thus advisable to provide as much information you can provide.

When the search is conducted, every possible platforms are taken into consideration where there is a possibility to find any similar kind of invention. This platform includes both Patent and non-patent literature.

Yes. Not conducting a search will be a kind of gamble because there will be a 50% chance that you may not get the patent because of the uncertainty around similar prior art that may exist which is similar to your invention. If similar kind of invention does not exist then the entire registration procedure will follow smoothly. On the other hand if similar kind of invention exists and no patent search has been conducted, this might result in loss of money as well as other resources. This is the reason why Patent Search is always advised.

For a patent to be granted registration, the invention should be absolutely novel and therefore all the major and minor databases of the world are searched to find relevant prior art.