Before filing a patent, it is practically compulsory to have at least a first idea about the prior art which could affect the patentability of the invention to be protected.
The prior art searches are always critical taking into account the fact that the opposable references are documents of every nature (patents, articles, ...) and of every origin (French, foreign) consequently of every language, and that they belong to the most varied technical fields and can be classified in different classes and subclasses of the International Classification.
The companies which file many patents have departments of technological watching and they conduct documentary searches which may be of a very advanced level.
Failing to have at one's disposal a permanent follow-up of the state of the art, covering all the world over, it is however useful, before filing a patent application, to conduct exploratory searches.
Many websites allow to conduct a free search. This non exhaustive search is highly recommended even if it does not allow to foresee all the references which will be opposed by the different Patent Offices during the examining prosecutions.
The more complete database is that of the European Patent Office (Esp@cenet) which put on line the patent summaries together with the texts of the patents as published (in PDF format) without restricting to European patents.
Other sites can also be consulted :
- Delphion (past IBM base), which allows also to search granted European patents by their number.
- SurfIP (in advanced search mode).
- US Patent Search (to dowload full patents and patent applications)
Moreover, it is also possible to search patents in the bases of some Patent Offices :
- CA patents (CIPO)
- US patents (USPTO)
- JP patents (JPO)
- GB patents (to obtain the status of a patent).
In general each of these sites provides a search by key-words, by inventor, by applicant, by publication number, by registration number, by classification number...
In case of the filing of a French patent application with immediate request of the establishing of the preliminary search report, the latter is sent by the French Office within a time which as rule is not beyond 9 months as from the filing date. This official search report contains therefore the results of searches conducted by specialized engineers.
The studying of this report will allow to have a good idea about the strenght of the patent application. It is then possible to take the decision to continue the prosecution, possibly in restricting the scope of the claims in order to take into account the references cited in the preliminary search report, or to stop it if a full disclosure has been found.
Within one year as from the filing date, it is then possible to make an extension of the patent application abroad with full knowledge of the facts, although it always remains the risk of a late finding of a relevant disclosure, for example by another patent office or by a third party in an opposition procedure or in a counter-claim during an infringement suit.
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