Assessing what is already out there is a vital step in anything from selecting a brand or deciding whether or not to file a patent application, to forcing aggressive competitors to back off or directing future research.

The main types of search include:

  • Trade mark, patent, and design clearance searches and freedom-to-operate (FTO) analyses
  • Patentability searches
  • Competitive landscape searches & competitor monitoring
  • IP-busting searches

Clearance and patentability searches help you in determining if your planned brand, aesthetic design, or technical invention is too close to something that has gone before, or distinctive enough to be registrable without issue.

By contrast, landscaping involves detailed searches of competitor filings, analysing similarities and differences between patents, new and emerging technologies, trends in patent filings, geographical areas of interest, and identifying “white space” where you could gain good patent coverage, or thickets to avoid.  Regular monitoring searches can also be set up to check what your competitors are doing.

Finally, IP-busting searches can be used to identify ammunition to attack a competitor’s trade mark, design, or patent if you get a threatening letter, or are worried you might.

Barker Brettell’s in-house searching facilities and external partners allow us to provide a full range of services, with timelines and budgets to suit you.


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