Searches and Watches

Before launching a new product or committing to a costly patent filing strategy, it is good practice to perform a search to determine whether the product is novel or whether the new product would infringe a patent right of a competitor.

In addition, it is advisable to monitor patent activities of competitors. In that way, potential infringement risks can be identified at an early stage, and filing of oppositions can be considered, or a decision can be made as to what other action is needed to respond to a competitor.

We provide a variety of different searches and watch services, easily tailored to your needs by agreeing on the objectives and the scope before any work is done. These service include novelty searches, freedom-to-operate searches, validity searches, patent mapping, competitor analysis, and subject matter and case specific watches. In collaboration with our networks of foreign patent firms, the services can be extended to cover foreign countries. We can then study the results in detail, and provide advice, allowing an informed risk assessment to be made.