Prior Art Search
Know what already exists before counsel starts drafting. We search patent and non-patent literature for your candidate inventions in software, hardware, semiconductors, mechanical systems and medical devices, then organize the results so your independent patent counsel can move quickly.
Screening
Three questions before counsel sees it
Why Prior Art Search Matters
Prior art shapes how an invention is described and claimed. Searching early helps a team focus on the inventions most worth pursuing, sharpen what is genuinely new, and give counsel a head start. A search is research, not a patentability opinion. Counsel evaluates the results and decides how to proceed.
Our Search Approach
Scoped to your inventions, your field and the questions counsel needs answered.
Understand the Invention
Working sessions with your engineers capture the problem, the solution and the features that may distinguish it.
Build the Search Strategy
Define keywords, classifications and technical concepts across relevant patent and non-patent sources.
Search and Screen
Run searches, screen results and select the references most relevant to each invention's key features.
Map References to Features
Compare selected references to the invention's features in a clear, reviewable format.
Deliver a Search Report for Counsel
A report listing references, search scope, sources and limitations, ready for counsel's assessment.
Industry Landscape
No search is exhaustive. Relevant material may be unpublished, in other languages or in sources outside the agreed scope. Search results reflect sources available on the date consulted. Results inform counsel's judgment on patentability and claim strategy; they do not replace it.
Key Coverage Areas & Applications
Before a Provisional Filing
Focus disclosures on what may be new and give counsel references up front.
Invention Development
Inform refinement of newly generated product, service and process concepts, as well as existing inventions. Standalone searches do not include the full ideation engagement.
Semiconductor and Hardware Programs
Search device structures, circuits, packaging and process steps across technical literature.
Mechanical and Medical Devices
Review mechanisms, instruments and assemblies described in prior patents and publications.
Software and Systems
Search architectures, methods and data flows across patents and technical publications.
Competitive Landscape Context
Understand where others have published or filed in your technology area.
Prior Art Search: Common Questions
Our Credentials
Founded by James Borzilleri, named inventor and technology founder
James Borzilleri built this practice around a problem he met personally. He is a named inventor on an issued U.S. patent and on multiple pending U.S. patent applications, and working through that first filing himself showed him where the process tends to break: inventions that were never written down, records that arrive too thin for counsel to work from, and valuable work that leaves with the engineer who created it.
Rather than accept those gaps, he designed the technology and the working method behind Idea Partnership himself, then refined them across years of founding and advising technology companies in fintech and adjacent fields. The result is a repeatable way to turn what your team already builds, and what your roadmap still needs, into a documented invention record that patent counsel can file from.
Idea Partnership is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice, opinions, or patent filing or prosecution services. We work alongside each client's qualified patent counsel, who is responsible for all legal advice, opinions, drafting, filing, and prosecution.
Ready to Get Started with Prior Art Search?
Schedule a strategy call to discuss your inventions, your field and what your patent counsel needs from a search.
Book Your Free 15-Min CallSearch results are research only. Idea Partnership is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or patentability opinions. No attorney-client relationship is created.