Design patents protect the ornamental appearance of a product and are a valuable form of intellectual property. To ensure that your design patent application is as strong as possible, it is important to conduct thorough design patent searches.

Getting a design patent can be an arduous task, but there are ways you can enhance your search. Here are three tips to help you find the information you need.  Here are three ways to enhance your design patent searches:

Online shopping portals

Whether you are looking for a design for a shoe or a CCTV camera, online shopping portals can help you find a unique design for your needs. They also allow you to compare the technical details of various designs. Choosing a vendor with a simple shopping cart is important, as is having an easy way to return items.

While you can use your own computer to conduct a design patent search, you may find that an online shopping portal is more convenient. This can be especially true for those looking to buy a new pair of shoes, as the website can provide you with a variety of options that will ensure you find a design that fits your style. You can also take advantage of the technology that shippers have available, such as automatic calculators.

Regardless of the type of item you are interested in buying, a shopping experience should not be less enjoyable than one you would have if you were purchasing something in person. Make sure that the website you choose has an easy-to-use shopping cart and returns policy, as well as an easy-to-follow ordering process.

Product review websites

Using product review websites to perform design patent searches can be a great way to find designs that aren’t already listed in the patent databases. Often, these websites will feature pictures and technical details of products that are about to be launched, or that have been recently launched. Those sites are also a great place to find prototypes. If you are looking for a novel design of a camera or a light bulb, this is a fantastic resource for you.

Another great way to search for products is to use online shopping portals. These portals will allow you to search through a wide variety of different products and compare the technical details of various versions. If you are searching for a new design of a light bulb, you can be sure to find hundreds of variations on the market. You can even look up manufacturers’ websites to see if they have a similar design. If they do, then you can use that as prior art for your own design.

Lastly, you can always look into crowdfunding websites. These sites, such as Indiegogo and Crowdfunding, can provide you with a prototype of your design. The key is to get your name out there and let potential customers know about your idea.

Targeted geography-based search

Having a targeted geography-based search can help to maximize the effectiveness of design patent searches. Often, the traditional methods of prior art discovery will not yield satisfactory results. However, with a little creativity, you can come up with some great strategies for obtaining high quality prior art.

One of the best ways to find the most relevant information is to go to the source. By using the Internet to perform a target location-based search, you can get the most relevant results. For example, if you’re in the real estate or rental business, you can target people in the industry who live or work in a certain area. If you’re looking to attract tourists, you can use Google Maps or a similar application to display content related to your local area. By taking advantage of these features, you can maximize your results and increase your chances of sales.

Backtracking

Whether you are searching for a design patent or looking for inspiration, backtracking your search is a great way to discover a new product or idea. It can also help you invalidate older versions of a design that may have been previously zoned out. For example, a camera with a similar look to the modern generation of cameras was once new to a consumer, but has been reused in several generations. When you backtrack, you can see why that particular design may have been chosen.

In order to write a backtracking search program, you will need to learn a special-purpose logic-programming language. These languages are specialized for a specific purpose and therefore cannot take advantage of the tools that are available in general-purpose programming languages. In order to write a backtracking program, you will need to understand the basic rules of the language and the syntax of the language. These rules include how to structure the code, how to deal with failures, and how to use iteration and stack memory.

Unlike recursion, iteration is fast and uses CPU cycles instead of memory. It is also transparent, meaning that you can perform a set of statements repeatedly without having to remember the function calls.