Freedom to Operate Services

Can You Launch? — The Question FTO Answers

Freedom to Operate analysis answers a specific, commercially critical question: given your product's specific technical implementation and your target market geography, what are the active third-party patent rights that could prevent you from commercialising? FTO is not a theoretical exercise — it is risk management for the most important decision a product company makes, the launch decision.

The cost of not doing FTO is asymmetric. If you launch without FTO and infringe an active patent, the consequences are: injunction (forced product withdrawal), damages (up to treble for willful infringement), litigation costs ($2-5M+ for a district court patent case), and reputational damage. If you do FTO early and identify risk, the consequence is design time — which costs a fraction of the alternative when identified before manufacturing commitment.

Our FTO Methodology

We begin with a precise technical description of your product — claim by claim, feature by feature. We then identify the relevant technology space and conduct comprehensive active patent searches across applicable jurisdictions. For each identified potentially-relevant patent family, we perform element-by-element claim mapping against your specific product implementation.

Risk classification framework:

• High Risk — Active claims with literal read-on to your product. Immediate action required: invalidity analysis, licensing outreach, or design-around.
• Medium Risk — Claims where infringement depends on claim interpretation or product feature implementation details. Document design choices; monitor closely.
• Low Risk — Claims with significant non-infringement arguments based on claim scope or product implementation. Note and monitor.

Design-Around Recommendations

For every High-risk finding, we provide technical design-around analysis: what specific product features trigger the claim, and what alternative technical implementations achieve the same functional objective without the infringing element. Early design-arounds cost engineering hours. Late design-arounds cost product recalls and market withdrawal.