Tutorial for Conducting a Patent Search |
 While
conducting a patent application search for the
nCap Technology product which was posted just a few moments ago,
it occurred to me that a lot of people have never searched for a patent.
If you have an idea you believe needs to be protected by a patent, one
of the first things you need to do is determine whether your invention
has already been claimed. Another scenario that necessitates a patent
search is when designing a new product to make sure a patent holder
cannot file a n infringement claim against you, and then sue to either
prevent its use altogether or to require a royalty payment
(you have no control over the $$$ amount).
I know an engineer whose company is essentially being held hostage to
the tune of several hundreds of dollars per unit shipped because of
just such an infringement claim. The USPTO has a well-done video
tutorial for first-time patent investigators.. You could potentially
save yourself a lot of grief by learning to do patent searches.
Posted February 2013
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