Which brings us back to the patentability search, the first patent-related search. If the value of the invention and demands on a licensee will be high, it may benefit the patent applicant to spend significantly on a thorough search to determine the true value of the invention, to bolster his knowledge of the value of his invention and help his negotiation process. But where the invention value and the applicant's demands are similarly not high, the perceived need for a search may be more driven by attempting to lower the risks in the relatively low cost expenditures for applying for and prosecuting a patent application. A producer will consider the cost of a patent application as just another small expense in protecting a product, and thus not consider a search as a qualifier for spending to apply for a patent, due to the value in being patent pending at least through the prosecution phase. Non-producer inventors are more likely to consider a search as a test for deciding if risk of expenditure for a patent application is warranted.
Lets look at the economics.
In conclusion, where the invention is valuable, the inventor should have an expanded patentability search performed in order to properly evaluate the highest marginal value of his ideas, since a potential licensee will order his own expanded validity search to test the patent. For a non-producer inventor whose invention is of low or questionable value, it makes less economic sense to use a brief search on which to base a decision to move forward to obtain a patent.