You are about to commit to a mould
Tooling is the point of no return. Finding a blocking claim after the die is cut turns a search fee into a write-off.
IP Search & Analytics · FTO
Commissioned before tooling, launch and licensing
Before you tool up, find out whose patents you might be walking into.
A Freedom to Operate study looks at one question only: in the countries where you intend to sell, are there live patents or published applications whose claims your product or process might fall within? Not whether your idea is new — whether the road is clear.
8,000+Prior-art searches
3,200+Patents filed
2,400+FER replies
11,000+Clients served
- Claims that may read on your feature
- Arguable — needs a claim-by-claim view
- Expired, lapsed or out of jurisdiction
The trigger
Why businesses commission one
Almost nobody orders an FTO out of curiosity. It gets commissioned at the moment money is about to become irreversible — a mould, a production run, a distribution agreement, a term sheet.
A launch date is fixed
A cease-and-desist two weeks after launch costs the launch, the channel and the season — not just the legal fee.
You are entering a new market
Rights are national. Clear in India says nothing about Germany, the US or the UAE — each jurisdiction is its own question.
An investor or buyer is asking
Diligence asks what stops someone copying you — and what stops you being stopped. An FTO answers the second half.
What an FTO study is
A structured review of live patents and published applications in named jurisdictions, read at claim level against the features of your product or process.
- Scoped to the countries you actually intend to sell in
- Read against claims, not abstracts or titles
- Filtered by legal status — granted, in force, lapsed, withdrawn
- Mapped feature by feature, so you can see where the overlap sits
- Documented, so the same search can be repeated and defended
What an FTO cannot do
We would rather you knew the limits before you commission the work than after. An FTO reduces uncertainty; it does not eliminate it.
- It cannot see unpublished applications — filings stay confidential for around 18 months
- It cannot freeze legal status — rights lapse, revive and change hands after the search date
- It cannot make claim scope certain — construction is arguable, and courts decide it
- It cannot guarantee you will not be sued; anyone can assert a right at any time
- An automated database search on its own is not a legal opinion — a formal conclusion needs qualified patent counsel
Not the same search
How it differs from other searches
Three searches, three different questions. Commissioning the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in this whole area — and the easiest to make.
“Can I get a patent?”
Looks at everything ever published, anywhere, alive or dead — because anything published can destroy novelty. Answers whether your idea is new.
“Can I sell this?”
Looks only at live rights in your markets. An expired patent cannot stop you; a granted one you never read about can. Answers whether the road is clear.
“Can that patent be broken?”
Aimed at one specific patent that is already in your way, hunting for prior art that undermines it. Usually the step after an FTO finds something.
A clear patentability search and a clear FTO are unrelated results. Your invention can be perfectly novel and still infringe someone else's broader claim.
Eight steps
How an FTO study runs
Every study follows the same sequence, so the reasoning is auditable and the search can be repeated later against the same scope.
01
Product or process understanding
A technical session with the people who built it. We are trying to learn what the thing actually does, not what the brochure says.
02
Feature decomposition
The product is broken into claim-readable elements — the units a patent claim would actually cover.
03
Jurisdiction and launch-date definition
Which countries, and by when. Scope is agreed in writing before searching starts, because scope is what the study is worth.
04
Live patent and published-application search
Classification-led and keyword-led searching across the relevant databases, restricted to rights that can still be asserted.
05
Relevant claim review
Claims are read in full — independent claims first, then dependents. Abstracts are a filter, never the answer.
06
Legal-status review
In force, lapsed for non-payment, withdrawn, refused, or still pending — and in which of your jurisdictions.
07
Risk classification
Each family is categorised, with the reasoning stated, so your team can argue with the conclusion rather than accept it blind.
08
Report and strategic discussion
The report is walked through with your technical and commercial people — including design-around directions where an overlap is real.
Before we start
What we need from you
Everything below is covered by NDA before it is shared. The more precise the input, the narrower — and more useful — the result.
A technical description
Drawings, CAD, a specification, a prototype photo — whatever describes how it works, not how it sells.
The feature list
Which elements are essential and which are cosmetic. This is what decides how wide the search has to be.
Target markets
The countries you will sell, manufacture or import into — including the ones you only plan to reach later.
Your launch date
It sets the depth we can reach and tells us which decisions still have room to move.
Anything you already know
Competitor patents you have seen, a notice you have received, an earlier search. It saves time and sharpens scope.
Your own filings
Existing applications or grants of yours, so the study reads your position as well as everyone else's.
What lands on your desk
Deliverables
A document your engineers can act on and your counsel can rely on — not a database dump.
A documented search strategy
Databases, classifications, keyword sets and date limits — written down so the work is repeatable.
A list of relevant patent families
Family-level, not document-level, so one invention does not appear as fifteen separate scares.
A legal-status summary for each
In force, lapsed, withdrawn or pending — per jurisdiction, as at the search date.
Claim-to-feature mapping
Showing exactly where the overlap sits — the section your design team will actually use.
Risk categorisation
Each family placed on a stated scale, with the reasoning visible rather than asserted.
Design-around areas and next actions
Where a change of construction, material or arrangement moves you out of a claim — plus what to do next.
Every report also states its own limitations, including what was not searched. A study that does not say what it excluded cannot be relied on.
Scoped per product — no standard price list
What determines the cost of your study
No two FTO studies are the same size, so we scope before we quote. These are the five things that move the number — tell us where you sit on each and you will have a written proposal, not a range.
Everything you send is covered by NDA before we look at it. Scope, deliverables and timeline are agreed in writing before any search begins.
How many jurisdictions
Rights are national. Each country you add is a separate legal-status check, not a copy of the last one.
How complex the product is
A single mechanism is one search. An assembly with twelve independent features is twelve.
How crowded the field is
Some technology areas return forty live families; some return four hundred. Reading claims is the work.
How soon you need it
A study compressed to fit a launch date carries a different resourcing profile from one with four weeks.
How far you want it taken
A risk report, or a risk report plus design-around workshops and a claim-chart annexe for counsel.
Straight answers
Questions we are asked most
Is an FTO the same as a patentability search?
No, and treating them as interchangeable is the most common and most expensive mistake here. A patentability search asks whether your invention is new, so it looks at everything ever published, anywhere, whether or not those rights are still alive. An FTO asks whether you can sell, so it looks only at rights that are still live in the countries you care about. You can pass one and fail the other.
Does a clear FTO guarantee I will not be sued?
No. Nothing does. Applications stay unpublished for around eighteen months, legal status changes after the search date, and claim scope is arguable — that is what litigation is. What a clear FTO does is remove the risks that were findable, document the reasoning, and show that the decision to launch was taken on a considered basis. That record matters commercially and in diligence.
How many countries should we cover?
Start with where you will manufacture, where you will sell in the first two years, and where you import through. Adding a country you have no route to market in spends budget for reassurance rather than protection. It is usually better to cover three real markets properly than ten thinly.
How long does it take?
It depends on the number of jurisdictions, the number of features and how crowded the field turns out to be — the scoping conversation is where that becomes clear. We agree a timeline in writing with the scope, before searching begins, and we would rather tell you a date we can hold than one you would like to hear.
What if we find a blocking patent?
Then you found it while you could still do something about it, which is the entire point. There are usually more routes than people expect: change the construction, material or arrangement so the claim no longer reads on your product; check whether the right is actually in force in your market; test the claim's validity against earlier prior art; or approach the holder for a licence. The report is written so that conversation can start immediately.
Where this usually goes next
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Success storiesTalk to an expert
Tell us what you are about to launch, and where.
Two minutes on the phone is usually enough to tell whether an FTO is the right search for your situation — and if it isn't, we will say so.