If you have been spending a lot of time at home during the lockdown, I hope that you have been exercising and spending time in the sunlight.
For many of us, our stay-at-home free time is now filled with binging streamed content and video games, whilst others are reacquainting themselves with book reading, an indoor hobby or even traditional board games. However, if the pandemic has caused you to ponder about a business idea, new product, or design, you may want to put this time to good use and take your first steps to researching the possibilities.
For example, if you think you have an invention, you can easily access online databases that allow you to conduct an initial search to assess if what you are proposing is new or something similar has been done. Free to use searching tools and databases, such as “Google Patents”, “Espacenet” and “Patentscope” are just some of the places to start such a search.
Whether or not you use these databases, do not hesitate to contact an IP professional to discuss the whether your invention or business idea is capable of being protected.