During the course of the patenting process to protect a
new invention, one may require a patentability search
(also known as a novelty search) in order to determine
whether the new invention is new (novel) and arguably inventive in
view of the prior art. This situation can be contrasted
with the commercial exploitation of a product (or the working of a
method) and the question of whether or not third-party rights may
be infringed by that commercial activity, and therefore whether
there is freedom to operate in the
marketplace.
Patentability and freedom to operate searches are
therefore designed with different objectives, and produce a list of
different relevant prior art, although it is likely there will be
some commonality between the search results. This article is aimed
at describing these prior art searches in more detail, and when
they may be appropriate.
