How can you check to see if your invention is new?

It can be disheartening and costly to
discover, after months of effort and
investment, that your patent application
is not allowed because your invention
is not new. To avoid this, you should
carry out a search through published
patents and other documents such as
trade catalogues before applying. You
can either:
• carry out a search yourself – see
our booklet Patents: Essential
Reading – although the results
might not be as comprehensive as
you would want; or
• pay an organisation to do a search
for you, such as a patent attorney .