How does the patent approving authority check for the novelty of the idea that you want to patent for

Question

When the patent has been filed, how does the patent authority check that the idea or product you produced is new. How does they check that their resources that there exists no patent for the idea you have. Are there any categories in the patents that you file for like the patent you are filing for comes under 'Information Technology' or 'Physics' or 'Psychology'. I mean ask that they check in the categories if they exist, .

Can they say that your idea is just an implication for some other patent, if so, how to proceed with our patent. Is there a way that we can proceed legally saying that your idea is unique.

Answer 1

The short version is they do a search through databases starting with patent databases. They aren't specifically looking for previous patents. If your claimed invention is already described in a patent, a patent application, a journal article, or anywhere else you shouldn't be able to get a patent.

Searching is a art. It is done by text searching and by classification. The patent databases are indexable by class and subclass to a much finer level than "physics".