A preliminary patent search (checking if your idea already exists) costs $1,500–$4,000 through an attorney. Most solo inventors either pay for a report they can't read or skip it entirely.
I'm building a tool that takes a plain-English description of your idea, searches EPO (which covers 100+ countries including all US patents), and returns the 10 closest patents in plain language — what they cover and what it means for your idea. One-time fee, ~$30, no subscription.
The gap I'm filling: every existing tool either requires Boolean search expertise (Espacenet, Google Patents), costs hundreds per month (PatSnap, IPRally), covers US patents only (PQAI), or bundles the search into a full $5,000 filing workflow (SenseIP). Nobody offers a simple pay-per-search plain-English report.
Still validating demand before building. Would love to hear from anyone who has run into this problem — or who thinks the problem isn't real enough to solve.