Issues arising from questions of Intellectual Property can be a minefield for the private inventor and it is always wise to seek advice. Your first port of call in the UK should probably be the UK Intellectual Property Office, in particular their advice for inventors. The British Library Business & IP Centre is also a useful source of information and advice.

If you are looking to establish that your invention is truly new and involves an inventive step there are many free database systems which you can explore yourself, a few of which are listed on our links page. Of these perhaps the most useful to the private inventor is the Espacenet system from the European Patent Office.

At some stage it is likely that you will want to consult a Patent Attorney and in the UK the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) can help you find a Patent Attorney. CIPA also holds regular clinics around the country which give free basic advice.

We are however happy to provide pre-paid for search services to the private inventor. Our budget novelty search priced at £400 has limits as regards the professional time we can spend, but benefits from the subscription databases available to us and usually provides an effective first survey of the prior art.