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Infringement & Validity Searches
Infringement and validity searches are expensive. They ordinarily cost tens of thousands of dollars. If you plan to make or sell a product in a given country, you may want to know if the product will infringe a patent in that country. If the investment cost of launching the product is substantial, it is probably worthwhile to conduct an infringement search (or "right to manufacture" search), the cost of which can vary between several thousand dollars to several tens of thousands of dollars. The search is intended to be exhaustive so as to reveal the existence of any patent in the country in question that might be infringed by the manufacture, use or sale of the product in that country. Or if you wish to manufacture or market a product that would infringe an existing patent and suspect that that patent is invalid, you may wish to have a validity search performed. Validity searches attempt to reveal patents and publications existing prior to the filing date of the patent in question, to find out whether or not the invention had been previously disclosed (or in view of which the invention is obvious), rendering the patent invalid.
Frequently patentees request validity searches and opinions to demonstrate to investors or prospective partners or the like that their patent are perceived to be valid. And they may request infringement opinions to learn if their patents can be successfully asserted against a competitor or the like.
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