Hi David,

It is not clear whether you hope to eventually patent the Design for a hybrid car (how it looks) as opposed to its guts or utilitarian attributes (door, springs, frame, engine, suspension system, brakes, driveshaft, or a new combo for the above).

You've an uphill battle if you're not an engineer or well-connected in the auto industry especially during these hard times. You can use www.google.com/patents to do elementary keyword patent searching. Ultimately you'll work out Classes and subClasses then go to the patent office website to narrow down findings based on the class and subclasses since the patent office search site works best on numeric input and not keyword searching which produce hit-and-miss results.

I'd start by thoroughly researching via mags, websites, industry publications what is actually cookin' in the hybrid market; who is doing/working on what and manufacturers with divisions solely focused on hybrid applications. At this juncture - knowing the industry, players and competitors is a starting point along with elementary patent searching but don't get too excited it you find nothing of consequence while searching. Just remember, it doesn't have to be "the same" it could be "equivalent" to what exists too therefore not patentable. Also, you concept may be cited in patent Claims but not being marketed at this point but shelved in favour of marketing or working on the Preferred Embodiment - that is, until market entry forces align making timing perfect for other embodiments to be introduced.

Regards,
Penny Ballou