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I
00:05
have a concept from 2010 that I never got to complete, I started the search, and I have the results. Do I have to start all over now to resubmit the concept for a search? Or can I just use the search results I have now. So here's the thing. First of all, if you have publicly disclosed that idea, you cannot file for a patent. There's a one year time limit, you must file within one year. So if your idea was in 2010, hopefully you haven't publicly disclosed it. Now. If you have not publicly disclosed it, you can still protect it. But
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your search results are so stale, that they're not no longer going to be reflective of whether currently somebody has already come up with the idea. It's like if you get a cancer screening in 2010, that doesn't mean you don't have cancer today, you need to have a test again. So if the search is that old, I would advise doing the search again, or at least updating it, most patent attorneys will give you a discount, you're not going to pay the full fees to update an older search. That way if somebody else has filed in the last 10 years, you can see all of the money that you would put into your patent or put into your prototype because you'll find out before you file that the ideas might have been new in 2010, but it's no longer new today.