Below are some links to other websites that may be of interest

Patent searching

There are many resources available to help you search for "prior art" documents, to help you assess the novelty of your invention. Be aware that it's sometimes better to file your application without doing a search. Each case should be judged according to its own circumstances and we can advise on this, but for those who do wish to carry out a search the links below should prove useful.

  • Searching facility at the European Patent Office
  • The European Patent Office have a search engine that has pretty much worldwide coverage, and also provides a machine translation service between many languages.

  • Google's patent search facility
  • This is a very easy to use site, that also provides convenient downloads of the whole document, and searching of related inventions.

  • Patent Buddy commercial search site
  • This is more suited to US patent searches, but allows portfolios to be maintained, and provides some analytical features. Others are available at cost, but the freely available tools are useful. Requires a (free) account to be set up.

    Local and Regional Patent offices

    These links are useful for finding out more about the application process in the local jurisdictions, and for searching and for finding details of particular patents of interest.

  • UK Intellectual Property Office
  • European Patent Office
  • United States Patent and Trademark Office