Does a patent search come with a guarantee?
Unfortunately, no guarantees can be provided. With all patent searches, regardless of who does the search and regardless of whether it is conducted on site at the Patent Office, not all relevant prior art can be guaranteed to be found. Specifically, pending US applications are not published until 18 months after they are filed, so even with an exhaustive patent search there is no way to be sure that everything pending at the Patent Office has been discovered. Additionally, when you do apply for a patent it is extremely likely that the patent examiner will rely on at least some patents that you did not know about. Sometimes this is due to the fact that an examiner rejection could not be anticipated, sometimes it is due to the fact that the description of your invention is unintentionally overbroad, and sometimes it is because an examiner will weave together multiple patents to make a rejection. Receiving a rejection from a patent examiner is as normal and common as paying taxes every Ap
