During a freedom-to-operate or infringement search we aim to identify patents of competitors that may impede the launch of a product in a specific market. Such a search may also be necessary when seeking external financing, or during establishment in a new area of technology.
The different purposes may necessitate different approaches or depths of analysis. Sometimes a limited amount of time is sufficient for a satisfactory assessment of a case for a specific purpose, which is why we offer a fixed-budget package beside our regular FTO search service.
The more thoroughly prepared material we receive, the better results we can deliver. For this reason, we encourage you to formulate your FTO search order based on an as detailed as possible description of your inventive concept with emphasis on the most important features for which you would like to secure freedom-to-operate clearance. Let us also know if you would like us to concentrate on (or exclude) certain jurisdictions or assignees. If you have already carried out investigations of your own, we welcome if you describe these in the order.
FTO Screening
Our fixed-budget FTO Screening is a search aiming at finding and presenting patent documents with the most relevant claiming scopes covering the concept or set of key features that are of most interest to you. An FTO Screening is considered an effective infringement risk assessment strategy balanced against a sensible budget for the assignment, as our search results provide a representative overview of the clearance situation. This is often enough for strategic decisions or to indicate the need for further investigations.
FTO Search
In our regular FTO search service we aim to find all documents that may pose an infringement risk. As each and every case is unique, the search strategy and time budget is always determined in consultation with you.
The report is based on the special requirements of each commission, and can be anything from an oral presentation to a written assessment and the associated references to the protective scope of overlapping patent claims.