IP searches & monitoring

Novelty / State of the Art Search

You want to know whether your invention is new or if someone else has already come up with the same idea. A novelty / prior art search  provides information on inventions already published the patent literature and helps you to decide whether further development makes sense and whether a patent application should be filed.

Infringement / Invalidation Search

In order to be able to assess whether a patent has been infringed or whether a patent has been wrongly granted, an infringement or invalidation search can be useful. This allows an assessment of the features and components protected by an invention and which patents do not offer any protection.

Legal Status and Patent Family Search

A patent can be protected for a maximum of 20 years. However, this protection must be maintained by paying maintenance fees in each country individually. The legal status and family search provides information about the validity of a patent in different countries.

Name / Trademark Search

A company or product name must be chosen carefully. In addition to assessing the attractiveness of the chosen name, it is important to ensure that the naming rights of others are not infringed and possible confusion is avoided. A name search can help to avoid later problems with the use of a name and rejections of trademark applications.

Patent Monitoring

Regular monitoring of patent publications provides an insight into the current development of a technology area. In addition it allows detection patent infringements and potential collaborations. Regularly seeing the solutions of others stimulates and generates new ideas and contributes to the innovation power of your company.

In order to keep track of the many monthly patent publications, a monitoring profile is created based on the technology area and the competitor companies. visiopat® patent monitoring provides monthly patent publications and enables assignment and efficient processing by several employees via database.

Trademark monitoring

In order to avoid conflicts and confusion in the market, it is important to monitor new registrations of trademarks in the official registers. Regardless of whether a similar new trademark is registered with malicious intent or by ignorance, it is advisable to take action at an early stage. Trademark infringement proceedings at a later stage are not only expensive but a trademark that has been in use for several years can be difficult to combat.

With visiopat® we provide you with the new trademark applications similar to your trademark on a monthly basis, assess the prospects of success and advise in critical cases allowing you to make a quick and confident decision.