Ideas for product development
A patent is published in a patent publication, which is a structured and comprehensive presentation of an invention. The patent publication is both a legal record and a technical document presenting the state of the art on the date of filing for a patent, the technological problem to be solved, and the solution with concrete examples. Patent documents are the most extensive source of technical information in the world.
This means that in practice all solutions of technological or financial significance can be found in patent documents. The number of patent documents is almost 100 million, and only a proportion of the patents are still in force. You are free to take advantage of the rest, either as they are or as a basis for new developments.
We publish all national Finnish patents, applications that have become public, and European patents validated in Finland both in our own databases and in the Finnish database of the Espacenet service. You can use this knowledge for many purposes, such as product development or competitor monitoring.
Patent information for product development
We recommend that you consult patent information at all stages of your product development. It is common for patent analyses to become more accurate and thorough as the product development proceeds. Consequently, you may need to look into patent information in multiple steps and from different perspectives while the scheme for creating a new product or manufacturing method is taking its final shape.
Decisions that you take when starting to develop your product are crucial. If you direct your project to studying a technology or to working out a solution that turns out to be already known, you have been wasting both time and money. The worst scenario is that the end result is another business’s property, i.e., that it is protected by a patent for the other business’s use. This is why we advise you to seek information about possible previous patent applications and the state-of-the-art technology as early as possible. You can also order a novelty search or an examination of the state of the art from us.
Read more about our search and examination services.
From an idea to a product and onto the market
The picture below shows our services. Make use of them at all stages of your product development. Click a box and read more about the service.