In the list of searches, another important part is the freedom to operate (FTO). The FTO is the search that helps the inventor to know the viability of the inventions concerning whether the invention is commercially safe to sell the product in any country and the selling will not infringe any third party patent. If in a country one needs to introduce a specific type of engine, the FTO search will help the inventor to know whether there is already an active patent in the market. This will help the inventor to know the possibility on a commercial basis. In this case, if there is any active patent in the market then there can be a risk of getting into litigation or ending up paying the damages and royalties. While if there is no such patent, then the inventor is free to move forward.
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FTO vs. Patentability Search
The patentability search and the FTO seem to be quite similar but they vary in their nature. They are often confused by their scope of search but they differ. In the patentability search, the service will cover all the publications. Meaning thereby, the search will cover the entire prior art and even the non-patent literature. The main crux is to find any patent and literature which will affect the novelty of the said patent. The aim is to find that there is no such previous prior art concerning the patent and that is why everything is being visited to prove that the patent is novel.
On the other hand, the FTO search primarily focuses on the active patents which can affect the inventor to undergo commercial difficulty. The FTO search can sometimes also relate their search for pending patents but generally, the search is limited to the pending application only. This search primarily aims to understand that if the patent, in question, is being launched in the market, then whether there are any active patent which can affect the patent commercially.
FTO Analysis
FTO Search focuses on the claims and analyzes the search result in terms of commercial viability. The FTO search primarily concentrates on the claims and not on other aspects like that of specifications and drawing, since it is the claims which will decide the viability of the patent. The FTO search can also be conducted which can involve those pending patent applications. Generally, the pending patent applications are not conducted since this does not provide an exact picture of how it can affect commercially.
The FTO always minimizes the risk of infringing the existing IP rights. If there has not been any such FTO done, the patent in question always has the risk to infringe the third party's rights. The FTO must be done as compared to developing the new product and the expenditure being done in developing the new product. To keep the FTO search efficient and cost-effective, it is important to keep a couple of points in mind. Firstly, the search must be limited to the countries in which the inventor is intending to be commercially active. Reduction to key territories will be a good idea for conducting FTO. Secondly, the search must be limited to the key technical field in which the inventor tries to enforce their patents.
IPLF
It is very important to take the help of professionals who have the required expertise and experience in the field. The expertise should be cost-efficient and must have professionals from varied fields to conduct an efficient FTO search.
IP and Legal Filings (IPLF), have a long-standing, acme, and enriching working experience in conducting FTO searches in several domains in fields including but not limited to Biotechnology, Biomedical, Healthcare, Mechanical, Chemical, Pharmaceuticals, Electrical, Electronics, Telecommunications, Metallurgy, Semiconductor, Software, to Information Technology. IPLF endeavors to conduct a robust patent search on a myriad of paid and free databases, with both local and global coverage. IPLF also conducts searches on country-specific regional databases to ensure that the product/technology does not face any legal impediment or a problem in a specific country. To provide the best efficiency, enhance the surety and accuracy of determining the legal status of the patent, the team do not only solely rely on the automatic databases, but also manually cross-verify the legal history on each country-specific database, which include but are not limited to databases such as DPMA register, KIPRIS, SIPO, USPTO, etc.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
