Prior Art Search
Overview
Professional support for your R&D project
A prior art search is an essential part of preparing an R&D project or a grant application, for example under the SMART Path (Ścieżka SMART) or other grant programs.
Watch the video below to learn more about the search:
While you can prepare a prior art search on your own, entrusting it to a patent attorney – an expert in industrial property law – guarantees a comprehensive and reliable patent landscape analysis. This helps you avoid the risk that the solution you plan to implement conflicts with already-patented technologies, which could mean paying substantial license fees or even limit your ability to roll out the project.
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Our firm prepares prior art searches covering a detailed list of patent documents – from several dozen to several hundred items – together with an analysis of those closest to your concept. The report is not just a formal element required in a grant application; it is also a valuable working tool for your R&D team. It identifies solutions you are free to use, as well as those that would be risky to rely on because they are already protected or have recently been filed for patenting.
For grant programs, especially those under FENG (European Funds for a Modern Economy) – in particular the SMART Path (Ścieżka SMART), Dig.IT, Automation and Robotics (Automatyzacja i Robotyzacja), and Startup Platforms for New Ideas – a prior art search is particularly important. Your application gains credibility when its documentation rests on solid market and technology data. Our search also helps identify the elements of your project that can be covered by patent protection or other forms of intellectual property protection, increasing your chances of obtaining a grant and safeguarding your investment.
We run our searches in professional patent databases, which makes for an efficient patent landscape analysis. We cover the geographic areas you specify – typically Europe, though the analysis can be extended to the US market (especially for IT projects) and other countries.
Service scope
What we offer
Assessing the Chances of Obtaining a Patent (Patentability Search)
We compare your solution against solutions described in patent documents and other publications. Unfortunately, it often turns out that a supposedly new idea has already been described by someone else. Patent documents hold information on many products that never went beyond R&D and, for various reasons, were never brought to market. If we identify similar solutions that are already known, we can save you from starting a costly patenting procedure that would only end in a refusal. We will help you determine whether your solution stands a real chance of being patented!
Freedom-to-Operate (FTO) Search for Your Product
We compare your solution against patents in force in the countries where you plan to sell or manufacture the product. The freedom-to-operate (FTO) search we carry out for you identifies the patents you could be accused of infringing. Knowing this early lets you start negotiating licenses for specific patents in good time, or withdraw from a given area to minimize future risks.
Patent Validity Search
If you have been sued for infringing an existing patent, or an FTO search has identified patents that pose a threat, it is worth checking whether they were granted in line with the legal requirements. We will do that for you: comparing the patented solution with earlier publications, we check whether it was actually patentable on its filing date. If the patent turns out to have been granted incorrectly, you can start opposition or invalidation proceedings and thus avoid infringing it.
For European patents, oppositions end on average with 1/3 of patents maintained as granted, 1/3 maintained in amended form, and 1/3 revoked entirely. In many cases, a patent validity search therefore results in the patent being invalidated and the infringement claim being dismissed.
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
A prior art search aims to identify previously disclosed solutions related to your project. "Prior art" is everything that has been disclosed before a given date. A typical search covers patent documents (estimated to contain 80% of the world's technical knowledge) and scientific publications. Searches are usually run with patentability and/or freedom to operate in mind.
A patent is only granted for solutions that are new and non-obvious – the fact that nobody sells anything identical is not enough. The search shows what has already been described anywhere in the world, so you avoid paying for an application that would be refused anyway. It also lets you draft the claims strategically, around what genuinely sets your invention apart.
Free databases such as Espacenet or Google Patents are a good first step and well worth using. But they have limits: it is hard to pick the right patent classification on your own, easy to miss documents in other languages, and many key sources (scientific publications, technical materials) sit outside these databases. A list of hits is not the whole story either – what matters is judging whether a document is actually relevant to your project. A professional search adds a systematic search strategy and legal-technical interpretation.
A good report starts by explaining how and where we searched: the databases, keywords and technical classes. Its core is a list of the most relevant documents found, with a comparison showing which features of your solution already appear in each of them and which are genuinely new. It closes with the attorney's conclusion on patentability (a realistic assessment of your chances of a patent) or freedom to operate (whether any patent is infringed), plus recommendations on what to do next in light of the results. Such a report is not a bare list of hits but a ready basis for further decisions about your project.
They answer two different questions. A patentability search asks: "is my solution new enough to get a patent?" – here we look at everything ever disclosed, including expired patents. A freedom-to-operate (FTO) search asks: "can I launch my product without infringing someone else's rights?" – here what counts are the patents still in force in the countries you care about. The first is done before filing a patent application, the second before launching a product (and ideally before R&D starts, then periodically as it progresses). After all, you can hold your own patent and still infringe someone else's.
It depends on the complexity of the technology and the scope. A quick preliminary check takes a few hours and gives a general picture. A solid patentability search with a report and an attorney's opinion usually takes at least 10 hours. In-depth freedom-to-operate (FTO) searches can run to several dozen or even several hundred working hours. Plan for this well in advance, before a filing deadline or launch date starts looming.
Yes. The search itself is discreet – we query public databases without publishing anything, so it does not disclose your idea to anyone. On top of that, patent attorneys are bound by statutory professional secrecy, and the engagement can be covered by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Before filing, your idea is protected as a secret – provided you do not disclose it publicly yourself. The biggest risk is not the search but your own launch, demo or publication before the filing date.
"Similar" does not mean "identical" – and that is good news. A patent can often be obtained for the ways your solution genuinely differs from what is known and for the technical problem it solves better. In that case we narrow the claims down to those new, non-obvious features. A document we find can also be a valuable hint, showing what your competitors have not solved yet. If the field is truly crowded, we look at designing around the other patent, changing direction, or relying on trade secret protection.
It is a broader view than a search focused on a single invention. A patent landscape analysis maps an entire field: who is filing patents, where the technology is heading, and where the "white spaces" are – areas competitors have not yet claimed. That is valuable guidance on where to direct your research and how to stand out. It is typically done early in a project, before entering a new area, and when valuing a company ahead of a sale.
Novelty alone is not enough. An invention must meet three conditions: it must be new (never disclosed anywhere before), non-obvious to a person skilled in the art, and industrially applicable. The hardest one is usually the second – the "inventive step". The point is that the solution cannot be a simple, obvious combination of what is already known. So the search does not stop at "has anyone done the same thing?" but asks "would a skilled person easily arrive at it by combining existing knowledge?".
Yes – and it is one of the most common costly mistakes. In Europe, including Poland, there is no grace period: any public disclosure before the filing date (a sale, a trade fair demo, an article, even a quiet launch without a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)) can irreversibly destroy novelty. The rule is simple: file first, launch later. Conversations covered by an NDA are normally safe. Note that some countries, such as the US, offer a one-year grace period – but do not rely on it if you have plans for Europe.