If you have a product with some functions or appearance that you want to apply for a patent, you must check whether it has been registered by someone else.
Choose a suitable patent database. Patents are regional, so in order to protect their own patents, inventors generally apply for patent protection in the country where they want to be protected. In addition, since patents are a disclosure of invention technology that encourages creativity, all countries will disclose the invention patents applied for or approved in that country, so there will be free databases in various countries. If the patent involves multiple countries, searching the patent databases of different countries will not only waste time, but also cause errors due to the different languages and grammars used, so it is very important to choose a comprehensive database with a lot of data.
②Patent search data of major countries.
WIPO: http://www.wipo.int/portal/en/
USPTO: http://www.uspto.gov/patent
EU EPO: http://www.epo.org/
Japan JPO: http://www.jpo.go.jp/
South Korea KIPO: http://www.kipo.go.kr/kpo/eng/
China SIPO: http://www.sipo.gov.cn/
Germany DE: http://www.dpma.de/
Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market: https://oami.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/
Australia: http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/
Canada: http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/home
UK: https://www.gov.uk/govemment/organisations/intellectual-property-office
Hong Kong: http://www.ipd.gov.hk/
New Zealand: http://www.iponz.govt.nz/cms