Infringement Search
A Patent Infringement Search or a Freedom-to-Operate Search should be conducted
prior to the launching of the product on the market. This type of patent search
is performed to ascertain whether the product falls within the scope of a granted
patent that may be held by another party. It will also locate patent applications
that have been published but are yet to have the claims in the final accepted form.
With this type of search it is crucial to find all relevant material.
Including PCT Applications
A search of just the Australian patent office database is not sufficient to cover
all Australian patent applications. An international patent application (PCT Application)
is equivalent to an Australian patent application if it designated Australia. The
international patent application has up to 30 months to be filed (also called entering
National Phase) in Australia. Therefore, a complete Australian infringement search
includes searching the international patent application (PCT) database.
Including Lapsed and Ceased Patents
Depending on your budget and your risk adverseness - we will often recommend a searching
method that excludes patents that have lapsed or ceased. This means that we do not
inspect any lapsed applications or ceased patents - however there is a possibility
that a relevant application/patent may be restored. Standard patents are recorded
as lapsed or ceased after a period of grace of six (6) months, but it is possible
that they may be restored after this time. To reduce this risk, we can extend the
search to including patents that have lapsed or ceased in the last couple of years.
Ongoing Watching
If you have conducted an infringement search, we may recommend a patent watch
to monitor for the publication or acceptance of any patent
applications or the restoration of any relevant lapsed or ceased patents identified.
Supplementing your Infringement Search
We may also recommend supplementing your Australian and International (PCT) search
with keyword searching via Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI). This is to overcome
the limited ability to perform keyword searches on the full text of Australian patent
records.