The 21^st century has brought with it superior advancements in technology and the rate at which such innovations are progressing is truly unprecedented. Businesses have been competing neck-to-neck in this innovation race to keep up with such technological developments. Moreover, technology-driven firms that capitalise on innovative designs, processes, and products have been investing extensively in their research and development (R&D) processes and protecting these developments through IP. This is because such innovative patents can essentially pave the way for advanced products of the future. As we step into 2021, it is important to realise the role of patent searches in aiding R&D teams to create products of the future.

Why Patent Search is a Core Activity?

Patent search is a core activity for organisations that leverage their R&D innovations to develop unique products that are in high demand. This is because when a business seeks to develop a product that is unique and novel, it needs to file a patent for it to prevent piracy, duplication, and invalidation claims from competitors.

With the spread of technology transcending international borders since 1994, patent searches have become a core activity for such businesses. Given below are 7 ways in which you can leverage patent searches to help your organisation’s R&D teams to develop products of the future.

• Novelty Searches for Product Development

Conducting a patent search before the patent prosecution process can help organisations to confirm the novelty of their invention. Since products of the future need to be unique and protected against duplication, filing for patents for such innovations is necessary. Novelty searches or patentability searches can provide useful insight into the scope of patenting such innovations for the development of future products.

• Filing Patent Applications

This is one of the most important ways in which patent searches can help your organisation to develop products that can be marketed without the fear of duplication. As stated earlier, protecting your innovations is essential and this can be done by filing patents to secure its rights. Patent searches provide invaluable information to intellectual property (IP) attorneys who prepare such patent application documents and thus it is an important step towards developing commercially viable products of the future. This helps R&D teams to seamlessly develop innovative future product ideas that are backed by patents for which the organisation has fully secured all rights.

• Patent Invalidation Searches to Tackle IP Litigation

Conducting patent invalidation search is essential while developing innovative products. This is because, when faced with litigation, IP teams conduct patent invalidation searches to protect the organisation from hefty fines of IP litigation. By invalidating patent claims of competitors against the innovations on which your R&D team is working, you are likely to develop a product that is unique in its particular market segment.

• Avoiding Expensive Investments

By conducting patent searches, IP teams can gain knowledge of the relevant prior arts that exist for the technology being developed by the R&D team. You can then analyse whether the innovation being worked on is worthy of such costly investment or not. In case the technology being developed already has applications in the same technology sectors, it is not worthwhile to invest in it. In this way, you can direct your R&D investments towards technology that is currently not in vogue and can pave the way for developing products of the future.

• Conducting Competitor Analysis

Patent searches can also provide a way for organisations to conduct a thorough competitor analysis. Finding information about the existing and pending patent applications filed by competitors, and studying them can provide unique insights to your R&D team. This helps to innovate around the existing patent applications so that the products developed are ready to be commercialised. In this way, products of the future can be created by leveraging patentability searches.

• Saves Time and Resources

Since patent searches are conducted by either in-house IP teams or external patent search partners, R&D teams do not have to delve into in-depth research about the novelty of their innovations. R&D processes can be optimised when conclusive patent searches are conducted that explore all the avenues of the given patent landscape. Therefore, more time and resources can be dedicated to the refinement of products that use patentable technology, which can be developed as future products.

• Identify White Spaces of Innovation

When developing technology that powers products of the future, patent searches play a crucial part by enabling the IP team to identify gaps in existing technology using patentability search. Those spaces in innovation can help your R&D team to develop new products that are unique to the market and have the capability of becoming future products.

The Way Forward for Technology-driven Firms

For technology-driven firms that are working relentlessly towards the development of future products, patent searches can play a pivotal role in boosting their endeavours. When it comes to developing future products, digitalisation has spurred a massive growth in the application of patents related to digital communications. Therefore, developing products of the future by leveraging such technological innovations in digital communications has become all the more important. To do this, organisations can effectively use patent searches and subsequent patent filings as a means of staying afloat in this competitive environment.

Sagacious IP offers all kinds of patent information searching services ranging right from patentability search to patent invalidity search. Our team of highly experienced patent practitioners is committed to assisting businesses with the development of future products.

-The IPMS and Editorial Team

Having Queries? Contact Us Now!