Freedom to Operate Search

Freedom to Operate Search

The Freedom to Operate (FTO) search or a clearance search is performed to identify the companies or the organizations and their respective patents which can obstruct the commercialization of patent in question in geography of interest. If there exist any obstructing patents, the company can negotiate or in-license the overlapping patented technology before launching the product to avoid the infringement late

In general, this type of search is conducted before launching a product in the geographical area of interest to ensure that the launched product does not infringe any patented technology later. The best results from freedom to operate search will be granted patent overlapping with technology of interest. The published (pending patents) and expired patents are also given in results to ensure comprehensive reporting.

We assist clients in a number of FTO searches for various jurisdictions worldwide in various technology domains such as electrical, software, life science, chemical, oil & gas, semiconductors etc.