The U.S. Patent Office has a convenient search feature.
Intellectual property law is designed to ensure that inventors, artists and corporations maintain the rights to their ideas and creations. If you've happened upon an invention you believe is worth patenting, you must first check to make sure it is, in fact, an "invention" -- in other words, that someone else hasn't dreamed up the idea first. There are several ways of checking whether or not your invention already exists.
Instructions
1. Conduct a Google search for your idea. A simple search of the web can turn up whether or not your device, product or other creation already exists. However, just because you don't locate it via Google search does not mean it's not out there.
2. Use Google Patents search (see Resources) to look specifically for patented items. The Google patent database catalogs over seven million patents for your perusal.
3. Search the website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which has a search feature that offers a variety of search terms including title, holder of patent, description and assignee data. The results include current as well as pending patents.
4. Hire a patent lawyer to do the research for you. Patent attorneys are trained in intellectual property law and well-versed in the patent process, including verify whether or not your invention has already been invented.
Tags: whether your, already exists, Google search, invention already, search feature, whether your invention, your invention
