Guide to Researching Patents and Trademarks

Before you take your amazing new inventions or incredibly creative company name out to be patented or trademarked (respectively) you’re going to need to make sure that nobody has beaten you to the punch. Here’s a quick guide to researching an existing patent or trademark.

First, go online

The easiest way to research existing patents or trademarks is to hop online and visit The United States Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov). The government office has placed all their patent and trademark information from 1790 to the present into the main database. The database is free and can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection.

Note for patent searches: You can search by keyword for any patent after 1976. But you will need an exact patent number to see any result prior to 1976.

Refine your search

The search for a trademark is more straightforward than that for a patent – which can be more complex. With regards to a patent: To perform a more thorough search for your information, search by different fields, including: common descriptive terms (that refer to the invention), the desired effect of the patented process, the functions of the invention, and so forth. If you want to find everything that could potentially be related, you want to really cut a wide berth in your search.

Consult an attorney or independent agent

These experts will have the know-how to turn over every rock until they find what you are looking for, especially when it comes to the patent searches. Attorneys and experts will also be able to give you a more definitive answer about if there is NO like-patent out there for you to worry about.

Note: Because invention scams are quite prevalent, you might want to have any attorney or agent who performs a search on your behalf sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This protects you against potential intellectual property (IP) theft.