Law360, New York (October 20, 2015, 10:19 AM EDT) -- Effective prior art searching is a critical business need for law firms, large and small organizations, and even individual inventors and startup companies. Ordering the right search at the right time results in maximizing profit from your patent portfolio. Ordering the wrong search may result in more art (and thus higher search costs) than necessary or less art (and thus higher business risk) than necessary. For example, ordering a landscape search when you really only need a freedom-to-operate search could be more costly than you need. Further, ordering the search at the optimal time is essential to maximizing the benefits. For example, patent owners may miss out on the opportunity to amend weak claims if they find themselves subject to an inter partes review. Ordering an invalidity search before this risk presents greatly reduces chances of a potentially catastrophic end to their patents. Therefore, having a keen sense of which search to order and when to order the search greatly benefits your business....