A patent search is a check through the patent database of one or more patent offices to find evidence of prior art in respect of an invention, or to look for activity in a particular technical area or by specific competitors, e.g. as part of a patent watch. Patent searches are often carried out before attempting to file an invention, to reduce the chance of an application being turned down because it wasn’t novel. Patent searches are also carried out by the patent examiners themselves as part of the examination process.

Patent searching can usually be done online now, and is a routine but time consuming task, usually conducted by a patent attorney, or by a specialist firm of patent searchers.