IP Intelligence › In Simple Words › Patentability search
In simple words
Patentability search
Also called: Prior art search, Novelty search
The cheapest week you will ever spend on a patent is the week before you file.
- In simple words
- A search of published literature - patents and non-patent - to work out whether an invention is likely to be new and inventive, and where the closest existing disclosures sit.
- Think of it as
- Checking whether the world has already seen this, before you pay to argue that it has not.
- Why it matters
- A good search changes what you draft. Knowing the closest document lets you write claims that step around it deliberately, and lets you decide whether to file at all.
- A simple example
- A search turns up a Japanese utility model from 2011 covering most of the mechanism. That is bad news in week one and catastrophic news in year three - by which time you have paid for drafting, filing, examination and, possibly, an FER.
- Common mistake
- Believing a clean search guarantees a patent. No search is exhaustive: unpublished applications, obscure languages and non-patent literature routinely surface later.
Sources & further reading
- The Patents Act, 1970 (consolidated to 1 August 2024) — Official IP India text
Related
Prior art
Everything that was already available to the public anywhere in the world before your relevant date, in any form, and which can therefore be used to argue that your …
Freedom to operate
An assessment of whether making or selling your product in a given country would infringe someone else's rights that are in force there. It is a different question f…
A clean prior art search means the patent will be granted.
No search is exhaustive. Applications are unpublished for eighteen months, non-patent literature is poorly indexed, and examiners search differently from anyone else…
Searching once, at the wrong moment
Most organisations search once, just before filing, and treat the result as a verdict. Searching is more useful when it is treated as a repeated activity with a diff…
Keep going.
Every explanation here links to the ones next to it. Follow the thread rather than the menu.
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.