When using Google's Patent Search to do searches, what is to stop Google from filing their own patent application based on my search terms?

I could not find anything in the TOS that would really make a difference to the other Google products. That means, Google has the right to process and store your queries. Personally, I do not use this for prior art search before drafting a patent application. However, I use it for prior art search for attacking existing patents. Does this help? Rolf Claessen

I highly doubt Google is looking to steal ideas from their patent search engine.  They have much more important things to work on.  If you're that worried about it, don't use them.  Learn to search the USPTO databases, or use the EPO search engine mentioned below (although, maybe some company is trolling that place too, if we're getting paranoid).

There isn't a law specific to that situation, but there is contract law that governs agreements made among parties.Google's FAQ on this topic (https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/6261372) states "Google does not inspect Google Patents logs to inform its own patenting strategies." So, if you trust Google, there you have it.  If you don't trust Google, then they might be violating some contractual arrangement that might be deemed to be present between them and their users, but you'd likely never be able to prove anything.As Tom McFarlane points out, it is unlikely that a patentable invention could be discerned from keywords used to perform a patentability search.  I can imagine some searches that could convey an invention (such as searching "metoprolol succinate") but for the most part, take a look at your keywords and see if you think someone could infer your invention from just those words.  More information would be conveyed by your clickstream, but it seems that it would be more fruitful for Google to not spend time following those clickstreams and instead just invent their own stuff.

Patents can only legally be granted to the actual inventor. So, any resulting patent would not be valid. Google has plenty of inventions of its own, and need not waste time trying to get invalid patents.Anyway, an invention that is so simple that it can be identified by a set of key words is almost certainly too obvious to be patentable. In addition, it would be an incredible accomplishment for Google to discern from a stream of search terms alone (which could be searching for anything) whether they represent features of a new and patentable invention. And even if Google could do that amazing feat, in order for Google to file its own patent, it would also need to determine how to make and use the invention from the keywords alone. Good luck!

If Google were to apply for a patent and claim an employee as the inventor of a thing it knew to actually be invented by another person, then Google would be guilty of fraud.Patent law requires that the application name the actual inventors, and a patent can only be granted to the actual inventor or his/her proper assignees (typically an employer).

The most obvious is this — if your invention is obvious, e.g., anyone who sees the search terms you used in your prior art search would immediately know exactly how to invent the same thing — then your patent should not be granted and even if it were it would likely not hold up if you ever needed to try to enforce it.More hopefully, you’ve thought of something no one else has, and no one else will think of it before you file.