Patent Scan

Why

Find a technological niche that is not covered by an active patent.

How

Identify the core technologies needed to solve the problem. Create a search plan to systematically search patent sources. A search plan typically consists of keywords, synonyms, and includes the databases and search engines (or other sources). See which technology solutions have not been addressed by the competition to find your niche.

Ingredients

• A search plan with keywords.

• Google patents for finding product categories.

• Espacenet and WIPO (Patentscope) for specific patent search.

Practice

Companies use a patent scan to make sure no existing ideas are being developed that are covered by a temporary monopoly; violating an existing patent can be costly. The scan is also done to generate ideas for a new market niche.