This week sees the EPO run a free online event "Patent
Knowledge Week",
https://www.epo.org/news-events/events/conferences/patent-knowledge-week.html.
The event is, primarily, to show attendees how to use the vast
amount of meta-data published by the EPO and other patent offices.
This event has run in one form or another for the last few years
and has generally been focussed at patent information departments
in attorney firms or large corporations. However, what makes this
year's event different is that there are streams geared towards
non-IP professionals and specifically SMEs and Universities.
I am frequently asked whether professional searches should be
conducted prior to the filing of a patent application. Good
knowledge of the prior art will allow a patent to be drafted to
avoid potential clashes with the prior art and this should result
in cheaper prosecution and possibly a broader patent.
However, conducting searches and the analysis of any documents
