Patent Infrigement Analysis
Freedom To Operate Reports
“Freedom to operate” reports and patent infringement analysis are used to determine whether a particular method or product, can be commercialized without infringing valid intellectual property rights of others. Since IP rights are specific to different jurisdictions, a “freedom to operate” report should relate to particular countries or regions where you want to operate. Because of the following reasons, freedom to operate reports and infringement analysis may help to determine the actual situation and conditions to commercialize a product or not.
Patents may not have been applied for in many countries or patents may not have been granted in some of the countries where applications were made.
Patents that were issued may not still be in force if the patentee has not made payments for due annuities.
Patents may have lapsed due to the end of protection period or some other reason.
Some countries have legal exemptions for certain actions and specific evaluation on the interested region may help to find an open way.
Patents that were issued in different countries may have broader or narrower claims so the protection scope may vary in different region.
A freedom to operate report or infringement report will mainly start with a patent search in certain regions, indicate whether the found patents are valid and determine the scope of protection of the patents in question and further analyse how the granted claims have been constructed and their scope of protection. The report may also focus on the possibilities of legal actions for invalidation of subject patents due to prior art reasons. The report will also include a comparison of the subject product or method together with the patents in question. Our technical services cover preparing freedom to opearate reports for any jurisdiction and our patent attorneys have considerable expertise and experience in preparing FTO reports.