Before you file in India, the question that decides everything is whether somebody has already published your idea, anywhere in the world. Search over 100 patent offices here, free with a free ISERDIndia account.
Free, and it takes a moment. Your search runs the second you are in, on the terms you already typed.
One account covers the trademark check, the prior-art search and IPBuddy Café. If you already have an IPBuddy account, sign in with it. Forgotten your password?
Coverage. Two indexes: Google Patents, with full text for the US, EPO, WIPO, China, Japan, Germany and the UK; and the European Patent Office's DOCDB collection through its Open Patent Services, covering over 100 patent offices.
Indian applications are included, with English titles and abstracts, which is a real change from the Google index this page used to run on. What is searched for India is the title, abstract and bibliographic record, not the full specification. For the Indian legal position (status, oppositions, renewals), the official source remains InPASS, and we can run that search for you.
An absent result means “not in this index”, never “the field is clear”. A professional novelty or freedom-to-operate opinion looks at non-patent literature, foreign-language equivalents and claim scope, none of which a keyword search sees.