A novelty search helps one confirm whether an invention (subject matter) is novel or new (patentable) and whether it has been disclosed to the public by any means.

Though open-source databases can help reveal some initial findings of available prior arts, a novelty search is done by professionals can help you dig deeper and discover the relevant results. IP professionals have access to commercial databases dedicated to intellectual property searching, resulting in ingress to large collections of prior-arts from multiple geographies across the world and make available foreign language literature as well. This helps in a wide and thorough coverage of the prior art.

Knowing the relevant prior art beforehand, helps you cite them according to your invention disclosure and which in turn accelerates the examination process by the concerned intellectual property office.

A novelty search helps in decision making pertaining the research and development of technology to test the strength of their product and safe guard infringement lawsuits.