The State Standards of the Republic of Kazakhstan No.15.011-2005 named “The system of development and launching production of products. Patent search. Scope and procedure” explain patent search as studies of technical levels and trends in the development of objects of economic activity, their patentability, patent clarity, competitiveness (efficiency of use as intended) on the basis of patent and other information. Results or means of business activity are the objects of patent search.

The essence of patent search is to conduct a search for available sources of information in the form of patent and other literature and the analysis of selected documents. Patent search can be conducted at all stages of the life cycle of industrial products and, in particular, in the process of creating, developing and selling industrial products. This is especially true for knowledge-intensive industries, in particular the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.

As it is known, it takes years from an idea to its implementation and the patent holder often after receiving a patent for an interesting invention cannot always realize it. Selection of published applications for inventions, patents for inventions, utility models and industrial designs on certain topics gives everyone a chance to get acquainted with advanced technical solutions and development of the latest technologies in the world.

The purpose of the search determines the method of its conduct, depth and geography of search, sources and accordingly the terms and expenses related to conducting such search.

The following main search purposes can be distinguished:

• Determination of prior art and trend of its development;
• Verification of patentability of technical solutions (world novelty and inventive step);
• Checking the patent clarity of new technological object;
• Definition of patent and license position.

In general the depth of search to determine the level of prior art is 10-15 years. Leading countries of the world are reviewed in search.

The depth of search to determine the patentability of technical solutions is not less than fifty years. Leading countries and databases of regional patent offices are reviewed in search.

The main types of patent search are by subject, by name (or company name), by number and patent analogues searches (prototype patents).

In practice several types of search are combined.

As a rule in all of these types of searches and reviews, the main sources of patent information are patent databases (patents for inventions or utility models and/or published applications for inventions) of the Patent Office of Kazakhstan, WIPO, the Eurasian Patent Office, the European Patent Office and databases of patent offices of leading countries of the world, such as Russia, Germany, Japan, the USA, the United Kingdom and others.

• topic (subject) search;
• name (company) search;
• number search (by numbers of patent documents);
• search for Kazakhstan patent equivalents (analog patents) and Eurasian patent equivalents for patents of other countries

In addition, our specialists:

• carry out selection of relevant patent documents that refer to the object in question (in the Kazakhstan database of title documents, database of Eurasian applications and patents and through our correspondents from other countries in similar databases);
• provide copies of patent materials specified by the client;
• prepare an analysis of search results.

We prepare reports and recommendations based on the results of searches; we also prepare conclusions on protective scope of inventions, industrial designs and utility models, which often serve as the basis for preparing application materials and filing applications for registration. We prepare reports on patent clarity.

In this section, information concerning the section PATENT SEARCH is published.

• Digital Offprint: Manual Industrial Property (MIP) Kazakhstan (in cooperation with Arnold & Siedsma and Wolters Kluwer IP Law Firms)
• How to obtain patent in Kazakhstan
• Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Protection in Kazakhstan

Yuri Bolotov

Managing Partner

Questions relating to the section Patents – Patent Research can be forwarded to e-mail address: info@bolotovIP.com marked for Yuri Bolotov.