Preliminary examination of novelty (novelty search)

Is your invention new or already known? Is it patentable?

Preliminary examinations of novelty show whether your invention is new or an already known technical solution. It also helps you to check whether your solution has already been presented in patent publications.

The first condition of patentability is that the invention must be novel. The preliminary examination of novelty gives you an indication of whether your technical solution meets the criteria for patentability in respect of novelty.

In the R&D process, a novelty search is often carried out when a developed technical solution is about to be patented. If the way to implement your new idea seems obvious, we recommend that you operate the other way around and not start the R&D process until you make sure that your implementation is new. If your technical solution turns out to be prior art, i.e. already known, or already patented, you can focus your R&D efforts on creating a new application and on finding a solution that might be patentable, or at least a solution that is not already patented.

Search result

The examination will reveal patent publications with solutions that are similar to the one disclosed in the request, or closely resemble it. If requested, the examiner may also include a short comment about the publications found, many of which are often in a foreign language.

Please note that as the examinations are not part of our public authority activities, we cannot give a direct opinion on the patentability of the invention.

For orders please contact our consulting engineers:

Tel. +358 29 509 5858 (Mon–Fri 9.00–11.00 and 12.00–15.00)
Fax +358 29 509 5316
Email: neuvonta.patentti(at)prh.fi
By post:
National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland
Consulting engineers
P.O.Box 1160
FI-00101 Helsinki