Searching for Prior Art for Inventors or Businesses with a product idea

I talked recently about Business Plans. Indeed, if you are (a) an inventor, or (b) have a great new business idea (which are really both the same thing are'nt they?) then you will at some point need to know about "Prior Art".

What is Prior Art and why is it so important?

Well, there are several reasons.

- You cant patent or have a patent application for an idea that has already been done, can you! ... So you must investigate the prior art. This is a legal term in patents and in new products that is defined as:-

"Prior art is all information that has been disclosed to the public in any form about an invention before a given date. Prior art includes things like any patents related to your invention, any published articles about your invention, and any public demonstrations."

Now, note the words above "information that has been disclosed to the public" and again, I will make a BIG point that you as an inventor or start up business with a new product must heed. That is the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) ... If you dont know what this is, then find out right now. As by "publicly disclosing" i.e. showing your idea to anyone, without asking them to sign an NDA, you will not be able to enforce any patent!! Scary, yes!

But here we are talking about Prior Art, and why you should search for it. The second BIG reason is:-

- You need to know if someone has thought of your idea before! You know, there might have been a good chance that they have. So save yourself time and expense by finding out as one of your very first steps

How is this done? Well its easy, and there are several ways. One is free, and the others are going to cost you money. Now later on, you might certainly require professional services, to ensure that you have not missed anything (using the benefit of paid experience).

However, you can do this yourself. And this is the way that I would recommend to start. Your time costs less, and it is not as hard as you might think.

A. Speak to Ged Doonan at the Leeds Central Library. They have access to the entire patent database, and Ged has helped me to do this essential search for free when I was looking into my own invention many years ago. And Leeds Central Library has an extensive search facility for Prior Art, and excellent support facilities and staff. Please look into this on the following link for all your Prior Art searching needs. I cant recommend them enough! Very knowledgeable and helpful!

B. There is a free online service run by the IPO called GB Esp@cenet

and this is usable in your web browser. You can do a complete "Prior Art" search for free using Keywords. Its free, run by the IPO and has had several improvements recently, that make it quite competitive and thorough. I might write a more detailed blog entry about this soon. But for now if you are stuck, then I would recommend that many libraries now in the UK have this search in their Business section, and can aid you to complete quite a thorough search! - However, please also do try Esp@cenet

Way down the line in the future, I might consider spending some money but right now, its best to do as much as possible yourself.

Get this information into your Business Plan, make sure you buy and read Build a Better Mousetrap: The Business of Invention and be prepared to research to discover if you are onto a winner. One final work of warning though, that just because you have an idea that has never been done before, this does not mean someone will want to buy it. Later in your Business Plan you will need to start researching and discovering more about your potential market!

But for now, get looking into Prior Art. You wont regret it!!