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For engineers
Searching prior art the way an examiner does
Why does the examiner always find things we did not?
Because examiners search by classification across jurisdictions and decades, in several languages, including documents that never became products - and engineers search for products in their own field, in English.
What to do differently
Search by classification, not by product name. Find the CPC or IPC codes covering the function and browse them, rather than guessing keywords.
Search in other languages. Machine translation is good enough now. Japanese, German, Chinese and Korean documents are cited against Indian applications routinely.
Include abandoned and expired documents. For novelty, a 1974 disclosure counts as much as a current one. Whether the patent still exists is irrelevant to whether the idea was published.
Include non-patent literature. Theses, standards documents, conference proceedings, product manuals, forum threads.
Search adjacent fields. A packaging mechanism can anticipate a medical device claim if the mechanism is the same.
What to do with the results
Give them to the drafter before claim 1 is written. That is the whole value. A specification drafted with the closest prior art in front of it looks completely different from one drafted without it - it anticipates the objection instead of discovering it two years later.
What to actually do
- Search by classification, not by product name.
- Include other languages, expired documents and non-patent literature.
- Search adjacent fields where the same mechanism might appear.
- Give the results to the drafter before drafting starts.
Sources & further reading
- The Patents Act, 1970 (consolidated to 1 August 2024) — Official IP India text
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Thinking about filing?
Before anything is drafted, the useful work is establishing what is already public, what is genuinely yours, and what you can honestly claim.
Educational guidance, not legal advice. This material is published by Ragulika IP for general education and information. It is not legal advice, it does not create a professional-client relationship, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own facts. Patentability, infringement, prosecution strategy and every other IP outcome turn on the specific facts and on the law and Patent Office practice as they stand at the time you act. Please take professional advice before making a decision, and read the underlying provision or judgment before relying on any point stated here.
Last reviewed by Ragulika IP on 2026-08-23. Indian patent law and Patent Office practice change; check the position before you rely on it.