Choose a US Patent Attorney to Conduct Your Search

Seeing the Big Picture

A patent search is a business tool that serves multiple functions.  It can:

A lay searcher focuses only on the search task at hand.  In contrast, a patent attorney searcher sees the bigger picture.  An attorney is mindful of the mission of growing and protecting the client's business.  The attorney uses knowledge gained from the search in counseling the client.

Few would disagree that it is helpful for a patent attorney to conduct a search.  The usual impediment is fees.  But our fees are in line with other U.S. search firms, despite a patent attorney conducting your search.  With cost not an issue, choosing the patent attorney searcher is an easy decision.

Knowledge of Patent Law is Essential for some Searches

The purpose of a clearance search is to locate in-force patents whose claims read on a product.  This search raises legal issues of claim construction and patent infringement.  First, the searcher must decide the claim scope of each relevant patent.  Then they must decide whether the product infringes the claims.  Lay searchers lack the qualifications to make these determinations.

As registered patent practitioners, we have the qualifications to decide these issues.

Avoid Bifurcated Search and Analysis

A prior art search may be the precursor to the drafting of a legal opinion.  In such a case, a lay searcher must communicate the search results to patent counsel.  This handing-off of the baton is problematic.

The searcher gains a keen insight into the state of the art during the relevant period.  But the transfer of all that knowledge to patent counsel is difficult.  This bifurcated approach to searching and legal analysis is inefficient.  The patent attorney is starting cold in the middle of the project.

These problems disappear when the person drafting the opinion also conducts the search.