The purpose of a prior art search is to unearth all pre-disclosed information for the purpose of demonstrating patentability. A patent application will be compared to the prior art to determine whether it actually describes a Novel Invention that has an Inventive Step.
When conducting a Prior Art searches it is useful to list all papers, articles and patents that are close to the subject matter in order to understand the breadth of claims available. Include any of your own publications or disclosures that are relevant u
sing Patent search tools such as Espacenet database and Google Patent.