Prior art is any evidence that your invention is already known. Prior art does not need to exist physically or be commercially available. It is enough that someone, somewhere, sometime previously has described or shown or made something that contains a use of technology that is very similar to your invention.
It is important to perform a prior art search for the following reasons:
- It can impact on patentability through novelty and inventive step
- It can effect commercialisation though freedon to operate
- It is a good source of technical and competitor information
Where to search:
- Academic literature
- The Web
- Patent databases:
European Patents Office www.espacenet.com
US Patents Office www.uspto.gov/patft
Google Patents www.google.com/patents
There is useful information and a Video on the European Patent Office Website which may help.