Whether you need to assess potential infringement prior to a product launch, or to plan out your next phase of technical development – Sagacious IP’s Freedom To Operate (FTO) searches are designed to help you identify potential roadblocks that may need to be licensed or invalidated; as well as guide product design decisions and/or uncover design around technologies.
At Sagacious IP, we conduct a thorough search to identify patents with claims that could prevent you from manufacturing or selling a certain product or practicing a process in a specific jurisdiction. These searches are detailed enough to guide you in making sound business decisions.
32,000 hours of FTO Search completed
400+ FTO projects completed
Brann, White & Case LLP, Abitz & Partner, Patentanwälte mbB
Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA
A US-based leading manufacturer and distributor of diagnostic imaging agents as well as radiopharmaceuticals approached Sagacious IP for Freedom to Operate (FTO) searches for its upcoming product releases. Sagacious created multiple proposals covering various features of the products and delivered the FTO results in an easy perusable format to enable the attorneys to make informed decisions.
The client worked in the fastest growing domain of acquiring FBA brands and needed quick IP due diligence before the acquisition process. There was an urgent requirement of running clearance searches against 100+ products offered by the retailers / sellers. The clearance projects involved conducting design based FTO searches. With quick turn arounds needed, Sagacious allocated resources worked quickly. These searches were performed for ensuring an infringement-free product. Given the custom nature of the requirements, the final report also included custom sections covering an overview of infringement risk for each product and country-wise segregation of the findings to assess the infringement risk in each country of interest. The report also included a legal opinion from patent attorneys from different jurisdictions. This one-stop solution enabled the client to completely transfer all their clearance work to us.
A renowned US-based food company approached Sagacious IP with a unique requirement of a patentability cum FTO search. As part of the project, the client wanted to iteratively work with Sagacious to refine their products with quick patentability searches followed by a comprehensive FTO search. The final reports delivered helped the client in filing strong patent applications as well as achieving infringement free products.
A Japanese automotive company was facing language barriers in its patent searches and reached out to Sagacious. They needed multiple FTOs conducted in China before their next launch, Sagacious India and China team worked together to deliver the multiple FTOs in a cost effective but highly accurate way to ensure that Chinese patents were covered using Chinese language searches. The final report containing Chinese references was created in English language for easy understanding of the client.
The UK based business unit of a leading Japanese company approached Sagacious IP for conducting multiple FTO searches in Europe region. The objective was to perform in-depth clearance searches before they launched new products in the printing supplies & hardware domain in Europe. The project involved in depth searching in multiple European languages and was completed successfully with the final reports being very well received.
A leading global law firm best known for its experience and quality in IP protection works with Sagacious IP for its FTO projects. Sagacious IP has been a search partner of the firm for over 10 years working with multiple attorneys at various locations and has been handling projects from multiple domains ranging from biotechnology to mechanical to electronics and telecom. In the FTO projects, Sagacious team works on delivering top of the line comprehensive FTO search reports that provide the easy to interpret report with comments, claim mapping and the latest legal status updates. The reports are also structured to provide results relevant as per the differences in US & EU patent laws.
A Freedom-to-Operate (FTO) search also called clearance search or infringement analysis checks whether a product used, or a process performed by an entity is infringing on any claim of an active patent.
An FTO search should typically be conducted as early as possible in a product or process development cycle.
FTO searches are carried out on granted patents and sometimes also on pending patent applications. Further, these searches need to be as comprehensive as possible. As a result, these searches are time-consuming. Depending on the complexity of the product and the countries where the search is to be conducted, an FTO report can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars (starts at US $500) to a few thousand dollars (can go as high as US $20,000). Usually, a patent search company will study the product and provide a detailed proposal including search strategies and costs within 24 hours or so. Most of the times such proposals are free and non-binding and could be a good way to judge the cost and capabilities of the company as well as understand more about your search requirements.
Any company or individual inventor can conduct an FTO search to determine whether it has the freedom to operate/use an invention/product in a specific jurisdiction.
Freedom to Operate Search Report for ICT domain
(Information and Communications Technology and related topics)
Freedom to Operate Search Report for Engineering domain
(Automotive, Mechanical, Electrical and related topics)
Freedom to Operate Search Report for Life-Sciences & Chemistry domain
(Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices and related topics)
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Sample – Freedom to Operate Search Report for ICT domain
Sample – FTO Search Report for Engineering domain
Sample – FTO Search Report for LSC domain
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