Your first step when you get a patent idea is using free patent searches to know if there are related inventions out there and to see if you can protect your idea. This is important due to the following:

• Free patent searches documents your idea and serves as a record of invention date.
• Free patent searches prevent you wasting time on developing an idea that already exists.

Inventor need not solicit the help of a patent counsel to conduct a free patent searches. They can do the work themselves and search for free patent searches sites. For an inventor to be able to start his or her own Free patent searches, he or she needs to access the U.S. Patent Office Database at http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html.

Purposes of Free Patent Searches
1. Find out if your invention is patentable.
Free patent searches helps make sure that no one else has patented the invention before having patented. Free patent searches prevent you from investing time and money only to find out someone else already patented your invention.

2. Avoid patent infringement.
Free patent searches will prevent lawsuits from infringing on someone else's patent.

3. Find similar patents.
Read the patents of similar products to get ideas to improve your design. If you are an individual inventor, you may have no idea what other experts in the field have already developed. Free patent searches will bring you up to date on the state of the art.

4. Protect your patent.
When writing a patent application, an attorney should know what the most similar patents cover. A patent can be invalidated if you don't find similar prior art patents. If you file a patent without using comprehensive free patent searches you risk another previous inventor coming forward and invalidating your invention.

5. Marketing your invention.
If you don't yet have a patent, the best way to sell a license is a strong patentability opinion from a patent attorney. Free patent searches may help show that the idea can be patented and licensed.


Free patent searches are important to prevent the inventor from shelling out thousands of dollars in a patent application. In some instances, certain elements of the proposed invention (embodiments), but not all, will be patentable. A prior Free patent searches and Opinion allows the inventor to identify the patentable elements and file a patent application which avoids the prior art and prevents any patent infringement.