The most important information an inventor can obtain before spending thousands of dollars on patents, trademark protection, and product development and manufacturing, is to discover what has been done before and what is already on the market. For example, are there: 

• Past or present U.S. patents covering similar products?
• Past or present international patents covering similar products?
• Unpublished but pending patent applications for similar products?
• Similar non-patented products being sold in the U.S. or elsewhere? 

Knowing the answers to these questions is a critical first step in the inventing processs. Unfortunately, thousands of patents applications are filed each year for inventions that have been done before or somewhere else in the world, meaning that, in essence, the inventor mispent his or her money since the patent obtained is essentially worthless.

The sooner you know what has been done before, the better informed you will be, allowing you to make intelligent decisions about your inventing process. Additionally, finding prior art can help you and your consulting engineer to find ways to design around the earlier work in order to produce a product that will be truly original and entitled to defensible patent protection. Lastly, knowing the parameters of the existing technology can permit you to make important improvements thereby enhancing your own product's marketability.

SearchQuest™ Patent Search is the only patent searching firm currently offering to provide you with the necessary worldwide information that you will need to be successful.