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Flat Rate Patent Search | Our IP Search Practice | Our Patent Search Practice | Patent Search Order Page

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Basic Patent Search order confirmation, item #SP01

Please print, or save, this page for your records

NOTE: This Patent Search Service is ONLY for inventions that are NOT in Chemical or Biotechnology subject areas.

You must read, understand, and agree to the below information and Service Agreement (by clicking on the "I Agree" button at the bottom of this page), then click on the "Add to Cart" button.

The general process to conduct a low cost, flat-rate Basic Patent Search, unless otherwise agreed upon, proceeds as follows:

1. Upon your payment being honored, we email you confirmation including instructions on how to securely submit your invention description, search parameter questionnaire, and full contact information to us confidentially. As an additional layer of protection, a signed confidentiality agreement (i.e., nondisclosure agreement, or NDA) covering the invention description you submit to us for searching will be sent to you upon request. Note that Registered Patent Agents and Attorneys are obligated by law to preserve their clients' proprietary information in strict confidence, otherwise he or she can be permanently barred personally from ever practicing in patents or any other area of law. Moreover, all employees of Bay Area IP have signed nondisclosure agreements.
2. You should have your disclosure witnessed (preferably two witnesses), evidenced by signature to the statement like "I have read and understand the invention described above".
3. Your case will be assigned to a Patent Search professional possessing at least Bachelors in Electrical and Computer Engineering (highly competent in the mechanical, electrical, software, and computer arts), who will email you asking any additional information or clarifications if required.
4. An estimated completion date (usually within 1 to 2 weeks) will be communicated to you.
5. A search report will be generated and delivered to you by secure email, or snail-mail, depending on your situation. The search report contains the Patent Search results, and should be presented to a Registered Patent Practitioner for a patentability opinion. Your search report is yours to do with as you see fit.
6. If we also received an order for a patentability opinion, then a Registered Patent Practitioner will render a patentability opinion and deliver their patentability analysis and advice to you (usually within a few days from when the search results are available).
7. After we deliver your search report and/or any ordered patentability opinion, we will not proceed to perform any further work until we receive instructions and payment for additional services you wish to procure based on the results.
8. The patents identified in the search report can be submitted in an information disclosure statement with your utility patent application as required by law.

1. All materials and information related to the invention to be searched, including written and verbal descriptions, samples, drawings, photos, recordings, and videos, as identified in the invention description (submitted after payment) will be accepted, and confirmed received, by us under the condition that the information they contain, shall be used by us solely for purposes requested, or authorized by you. We shall exercise a high degree of diligence to safeguard your proprietary matter (i.e., nonpublic knowledge) from unauthorized access by others persons. We shall only copy your proprietary matter as needed for work requested by you, and we will return your proprietary matter, including any copies, to you at any time you request it.
2. You need to provide us a written disclosure of your invention (preferably in electronic form) before we can begin the prior-art search, which disclosure must describe your invention with enough accuracy and completeness to enable us to perform an effective patent search. We may notice a deficient invention disclosure and provide you with an opportunity to respond with instructions and/or clarifications. However, we may not notice any deficiencies in your invention disclosure and perform the procured prior-art search as agreed upon, whereby you agree to accept a search report resulting from any faults in your invention disclosure. Basically, our search is only as good as your invention disclosure.
3. We will complete a U.S. Patent Search on your described invention within 2 weeks of our receiving the appropriate search fee and a sufficient description of the invention. To be clear, the Basic Patent Search does not cover, expired patents, foreign patents and non-patent publications (e.g., news, journal, and magazine articles).
4. The search will have at least the following standard caveats due to limitations in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) and WIPO patent databases:
   • Unfortunately, with over 6 million patents and published applications, and database/searching limitations and/or errors, no one can guarantee a patent search, not even the Patent Office.
   • Patents issued from 1790 through 1975 are searchable only by patent number and current US classifications. Thus, searches for patents prior to 1975 are made on a best-efforts basis, depending on the nature of the invention.
   • Current US Patent Classification data in the Database may not necessarily match the classification data appearing in the original printed patent.
   • Changes to patent documents contained in Certificates of Correction and Reexaminations Certificates are not searchable.
   • Neither assignment changes nor address changes recorded at the Patent Office are reflected in the patent database.
   • Because patent classes and subclasses are used in some aspects of the search, it is entirely possible that some very pertinent patents have been misclassified, and hence potentially missed.
   • Only issued patents and published patent applications are searchable outside a patent office.  A secret pending application
     may exist (e.g., for at least 18 months, and sometimes all the way until issuance) that the examiner could assert against your application.
   • References may be sometimes missed when buried within hundreds that are obscured by using nonstandard terms and/or generic, or even misleading, titles/abstracts, or figures.
5. We will provide you a Search Report identifying the most relevant documents found, and the basic relevance of these documents to your invention, suitable for a patentability opinion to be rendered thereon.
6. You understand that that neither of submitting this form with or without subsequent payment, nor submitting invention disclosure(s), nor receiving an initial consultation, nor communicating by phone or email creates an attorney/agent-client relationship. All acts under this service are understood not to create an attorney/agent-client relationship and, therefore, are not an attorney/agent-client communication.

Moreover, you must acknowledge that you understand and accept the Service Agreement.

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