The first stage in obtaining a patent is to determine whether or not the invention has previously been obtained by another party. Do you remember the rule about being the first to file something? If you are the first person to come up with an idea, you may patent it, and you will enjoy a monopoly on the use of that invention for a period of 20 years from the date on which your patent application was filed.
Until recently, doing a patent search required the appointment of an attorney or a professional patent agent; but, due to the Internet, you may now conduct your own patent search with the least amount of time and expense.
When doing patent research, one of the most important websites to utilise is Google Patents (www.google.com/patents), which is a great resource that offers text-searchable patents going all the way back to the 1790s. It is a significant improvement over the search capabilities provided by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, since many patents are not text searchable there, and because many patent researchers find Google Patents to be simpler and more comprehensive in their study.
Go to the following website: www.google.com/patents.
Fill in the blanks with the name of the concept or a short description of the idea.
Select Search from the drop-down menu.
A list of patents that match your search keywords is shown. Because the initial search may turn up nothing, you’ll need to think about the phrases that are associated with the concept you’re attempting to patent. This may or may not indicate that someone else already has a patent on the idea you want to patent.