Frequently asked questions

An invention is generally patentable in the United States if it is new (35 U.S.C. § 102), non-obvious (§ 103), useful, and directed to eligible subject matter (§ 101). No search can promise a patent will be granted; what it can do is show you the closest existing prior art so you judge those questions with evidence. That is what the Preliminary Patentability Assessment is for.

The usual path: search the prior art, evaluate patentability against what you find, then have a registered practitioner draft and file an application with the USPTO. The search comes first because it tells you whether filing is worth it and how to position your claims.

When you are ready for that step, the firm behind this service handles the entire process, from application drafting through prosecution before the USPTO. Contact us or visit underwoodpatents.com.

Products on the market are only part of the answer; most prior art exists only as patents and published applications that never became products. We search that literature for you the way an examiner would: by classification codes and concept keywords, across tens of millions of granted patents and published applications. Your report lists every verified reference we find, each linked to its source document so you can read it yourself.

No. You do not need a prototype. You need to be able to describe the invention completely enough that a person skilled in the field could make and use it.

Software is searchable and patentable in the right circumstances, but it faces the subject-matter eligibility test of 35 U.S.C. § 101 under the Alice/Mayo framework. Your report addresses that section explicitly.

A Preliminary Patentability Assessment PDF, reviewed and approved by a registered patent practitioner, that tells you, in plain language, what your invention is understood to be, where it belongs in the patent classification system, what already exists that is closest to it, and how your idea appears to stand under the patent statutes, with every reference verified and linked to its source document. It also includes the Patentability Meter, a gauge that distills the findings into a single at-a-glance reading. See the sample report.

Every report is reviewed and approved before delivery by David F. Underwood, Ph.D., Registered U.S. Patent Practitioner (Registration No. 65230), the practitioner whose search methodology this service runs. His approval, with the date, appears on the cover of your report. No report is delivered unreviewed.

The firm's search system, developed from two decades of professional patent search practice, uses advanced AI-assisted tools to analyze each disclosure and query the same databases patent examiners use. Every candidate reference and the full written assessment are then reviewed and approved by the firm's registered patent practitioner before delivery, and every reference is verified against its authoritative source record. The tools do the searching at scale; the practitioner answers for the result.

Law-firm patentability searches commonly cost $1,000 to $3,000 and take one to three weeks. PatentabilityCheck delivers a practitioner-reviewed search and written assessment for $199 within one business day.

The firm's search system runs a practitioner's methodology the same way every time, with a mandatory verification pass that no reference can skip, so the search itself takes minutes rather than weeks. The practitioner then reviews and approves the report before delivery, which is why the promise is one business day rather than one hour. You get a law firm's search without a law firm's overhead.

The same databases patent examiners rely on, and more. We do not publish our complete source list, but every reference in your report is verified against its authoritative source record and linked so you can read the document yourself.

Yes. Your disclosure is encrypted in transit and at rest, processed on our own private infrastructure rather than a shared platform, and used for exactly one purpose: producing your report. It is retained only as long as the search and the practitioner's review require; once your report is delivered, your disclosure, your figures, and the report file are permanently deleted from the platform. The firm retains its own record of the delivered report, as any law firm does. Submissions are never published, shared, sold, or reused.

Submitting here is a confidential use, not a public disclosure. But be careful elsewhere: publishing, selling, or publicly demonstrating your invention can start legal clocks, including the US one-year grace period. Talk to a practitioner before you disclose publicly.

If we cannot deliver your report, you receive a full refund. All other sales are final, because the search and review are performed on your specific invention as soon as you submit.

Yes. A 30-minute Report Review Consultation with the practitioner behind this service is $250. You can add it at checkout or arrange it afterward by replying to your report email with the subject line "Consultation".

Yes. A gift certificate gives an inventor either the search and report ($199) or the search and report plus a 30-minute Report Review Consultation with the practitioner ($449). You receive a six-character code by email; share it yourself, or have us email it to your recipient with a gift note and a copy to you. Codes are single-use and case-sensitive, and an unused code never expires. To redeem one, enter the code and your delivery email address in the gift certificate section of our home page.

No. The report is a preliminary patentability assessment for informational purposes only. It is reviewed and approved by a registered practitioner, but it is not a legal opinion, and no attorney-client or practitioner-client relationship is created by purchasing or receiving it.