Most of the organizations nowadays have recognized the value of taking the patents for the inventions prior to launching a product. Getting the patents for your invention adds up value to the bottom line by enhancing intangible assets and provides your company with big-headed rights. The patent mainly enhances the power of your company in the marketplace and stop your competitors from using your invention without your permission.
Less obvious but equally important are the advantages that come up with product clearance also known as Freedom to Operate.
FTO analysis incorporates recognizing and analyzing patents of others which might subject your organization to patent-infringement liability. By performing FTO analysis before launching and developing a product or acquiring a new company, your organization can avoid the risk of future litigation and minimize unnecessary expenses. The FTO analysis done early in the stage of product development affords the company to change the design and minimize infringement.
Despite an advantage, FTO analysis can also recognize the opportunities for patenting or future development. Identically, performing FTO analysis as a part of due diligence enables us to steer clear about an opportunity filled with risk of litigation.
The Freedom to Operate search starts with an assessment of service or product. Does any of them subject to existing licenses? Do any components create under agreements that incorporate any indemnification clauses? Do products or services differentiate from country to country? Simultaneously, a clearance search is done for the published applications or unexpired patents which might claim several components. At last, an experienced patent provider can analyze the data and offer the conclusion on risk while going forward with service, product, or any acquisition.
It is highly crucial to know that FTO analysis can not guarantee completely that your organization will not be sued. The applications and patents recognized mainly depend on the search quality and the degree of relevance of every application or patent will be subjected to clarification. There are some applications by others that are on the file but not published at search time, so they are not considered at the research part.
As FTO study is expensive as well as time-consuming, so most of the organizations select where and when to do FTO study so as to reduce the risk and boost value. Here are some factors which can enhance the decision:
Consider product value and investment amount
As an initial step, it is crucial to consider the service or product acquired or launch in terms of its value to an organization. What is the projected revenue? Is this product can offer high or low-margin profit
The products that have high volume or high margin are probable to lead to more damage. Thus, it is more worthy to take an extra step and clear product prior to proceeding. The products in this incorporate, cell phones, or television. If an organization has a restricted amount to spend for clearance, then, the product can be least ranked in value terms.
The services or product needed an investment relevant to the company’s overall research and development budget such that Freedom to Operate outcome might be utilized to lessen down costs or enable time for designing any recognized patents. The products which need less investment, FTO study is delayed ending of the product launch but in fact, need to be done before the release of the product.
Check whether identical products have Flickered Litigation
If your company is thinking of launching a product or service in the competitive market, then getting an FTO analysis done is ideal to identify the risk before the launch.
Check competitive community for the product
How large and how drenched in the market? How many competitors are providing and what is the history among players in the area? Is domain litigious, like TV and cell phone domains or challenges are mainly from non-competitors? In this scenario, FTO analysis can reveal the patents in those litigations.
If your organization has technical individuals and developers, then you probably will get a great source of information. Ask some related businesses to recognize entities they believe might be highly motivated to keep proposed new product off-market, and also as technical individuals which competitors closely resemble with your product. It is highly common in the marketplace for the development to get inspired by the competitors.
Consider Sources
What if you are sourcing all or some of your service or product from some other company? Don’t you think that organization bears the risk of patent infringement? Well, it does not always work this way. The marketing and selling of a company product are done under their own private label products which are mainly manufactured under the contract y others for the sake of organization under their own brand.
What are the objectives and risk tolerance of your business?
Prior to taking any FTO analysis, an organization is required to give some serious thoughts on how they can handle the results. Does the organization seek to avoid all the litigations at all costs? If they are ready to walk away if a new product, service, or acquisition is not favorable?
If any organization will go ahead without considering the results, then FTO analysis might not be effective. This results that the organization is completely comfortable with all risk of litigation as well as the possibility it will require to collect required resources to defend. With all this in mind, this tactic rarely seems pragmatic.
Conclusion
Analysis of FTO plays a major role in the IP strategy. It enables an organization to recognize, reduce, and handle risk while concurrently at the same time recognizing the fields where the patent coverage is not available and thus present the opportunities.
The only side to the regular FTO analysis on all the products is cost. As few organizations only have unlimited budget for the legal fees but most of the organizations consider the level of the FTO analysis on new acquisitions and products in their budget as well as risk tolerance. Having an experienced patent attorney is able to assist in creating a policy that is right for your organization.
The expression "prior art" envelops what is known to the public prior to a specific time, ordinarily, what is known preceding advancement of a creation.
Prior art incorporates articles, domestic as well as foreign published patent applications and issued patents, lectures, books, slide shows, and such.
A Prior art search service enables you to pick up a good understanding of the condition of the prior art before filing a patent application or launching another product to the market.This article will give fundamental direction on three typical prior art searches that may be helpful in creating and protecting intellectual property: a novelty search, state of the art search, and a right to use search.State of the Art SearchA state of the art search is ordinarily performed to give a general overview of the best in class in which the designer is intrigued.
This kind of search is commonly performed when entering another innovation or the innovation in your art develops at a quick pace.
A state of the art search centers around the latest prior art documents, which may limit time researching specific points relating to the development.While a state of the art search can be customized to cover specific databases, e.g., domestic and foreign issued patents, keeping in mind the end goal to have the best understanding of the state of the art, the search should be as wide as possible to include books, articles, patent archives, addresses, and so forth.Novelty SearchA novelty search (otherwise called a "patentability search ") is typically directed once an invention is completely grown yet before a patent application is readied.
A novelty search enables an inventor to decide if patent protection is accessible for his innovation, and if this is true, how broad of protection is available.Like a state of the art search, a novelty search ought to have an all around well-defined innovation of intrigue and cover patent reports, books, articles, and other art, to give the inventor an expansive comprehension of what is known in his field of art.Right to Use SearchA right to use search (also known as a “Freedom to operate search" or a "clearance search") is utilized to decide potential obstacles in acquainting innovation with the marketplace.
As the economic significance of patents becomes more pronounced globally, clients are depending on Ingenious e-Brain Solutions to provide them with sound IP advice to propel critical strategic decisions.
Our global team of highly experienced patent professionals performs exhaustive searches using best-in-class tools to identify technological threats as well as opportunities across industries and ecosystems.Our transparent approach and technical expertise help us deliver informed intelligence to clients for developing, protecting, and maintaining their patent portfolio.
Ingenious e-Brain Solutions is one of the best IP firms in India for providing highest quality patentability/novelty, invalidation study, infringement, freedom to operate, IP valuation, landscape, chemical structure and sequence, patent alert and watch searches and more.For More Details @ https://www.iebrain.com/our-services/ip-intelligence/
A patent search typically deals with search data mining which involves patents in one way or the other, either directly or indirectly.
Novocus legal provides services in US Patent search.
Visit Novocus legal website to know more about US Patent Search.
Mail us at [email protected] for any query.
