10 Reasons why Prior Art Searches are Absolutely Compulsory for Innovative Enterprises
Is my invention new? Who owns it already? These are just two of the questions that startups and SMEs are often intrigued with. While developing new inventions through R&D processes, it is very crucial to know what has been developed beforehand and how to deal with them. For this it is very pertinent to conduct a thorough search which in patenting terminology is known as Prior Art Search. This exhaustive search is conducted to detect all existing similar developments or inventions. Prior art is not something very complex. Rather it is similar to something akin to conducting a thorough research about say, buying a new house. What are our concerns? Locality, prices, legalities of the premises so on so forth.
Similarly, a Prior Art search is conducted to verify if the technology being developed already exists, its ownership details and even marketability. CoE-IP for the last 10 years is providing its clients with free Prior Art searches which are unbiased and objective.
Let’s look at the primary reasons why prior art search should be conducted:
- To generate new ideas for R&D
- To narrow down R&D investments thus save wasteful expenditures
- Avoiding duplicity of research
- Develop new technical solutions to problems
- To evaluate current trends in specific technology domains
- Technologies that may be open for potential licensing
- Ascertaining legal status of patent applications
- Effectively preventing infringement actions by others(freedom to operate)
- Keeping a constant tab on competitor’s research activities
- Understand new developments emanating from existing technologies