Why conducting a freedom to operate search is crucial?

In today’s volatile business environment, companies are faced with many challenges. Trying to get or make most of the invested money is the main objective of any commercial undertaking. With every new product being considered, one important thing to decide is whether to conduct a freedom to operate search or not. It is true, for any company at any stage, this analysis can be a large investment, but any kind of litigation can be even more costly. More important to note here is if your competitor gets an injunction, the money you spent to bring the new product in the market is lost.

The main purpose of conducting a freedom to operate search is to understand what patent infringement risks exist with the commercialization of a product and service. Also, it helps in understanding where those risks lie and to determine how to manage those risks before the commercialization of the product. At the foundation level, an FTO analysis involves two major steps. First is to conduct a search to find out other’s patents in the same technology area as the product or service. The second step is to analyze those patents to determine whether the product or service falls within the scope of the patent claims or not.

One thing you need to keep in mind while conducting freedom to operate search is that patents only have the effect within specific geographic locations. So you need to consider the markets where you are going to commercialize your new product or service. The key to this search is the proper design of the search strategy so as to retrieve all relevant patents and published patent applications. To do this, a robust understating of the product or process is needed. So it is important for an inventor to provide information that is precise and as complete as possible. Also, an inventor should hire a patent validity search expert to do an FTO analysis. This will ensure analysis is conducted in a proper way.

So as an inventor, you should see a freedom to operate search as an investment rather than a cost. It will definitely increase the value of your business. Hire a professional to identify valid IP rights of others which would cause a threat or a potential barrier to the commercialization of your product or service. If you hire a professional to do this job, you will be assured your FTO analysis job is in safe hands.

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