A clearance search asks whether you can register a name. A freedom-to-operate analysis asks a different and broader question: can you bring a product to market commercially without infringing someone else's existing rights? Confusing the two is expensive, because a mark can be perfectly registrable while the product around it still infringes a patent or a design.
A freedom-to-operate analysis looks across every right that a product launch can run into: patents (does the technology infringe an in-force patent?), registered designs (does the product's appearance infringe?), trademarks (does the branding infringe?), and trade dress (does the overall market presentation create confusion?). For a product entering a new market, each of these is a separate exposure, and an FTO analysis brings them into a single, risk-ranked view.
We search the relevant national and international registers for each right type, identify what is in force in the markets where the product will be made, used or sold, and assess how close it sits to your product. The result classifies each finding by risk and recommends a course of action: proceed, design around, take a licence, or challenge the blocking right.
Freedom to operate is part of our patent research and 360 patent strategy work, delivered through our patent intelligence technology. It sits alongside prior-art searching on the patent side and trademark clearance on the brand side.
Clearance asks whether you can register a trademark. Freedom to operate asks whether your whole product can enter a market without infringing patents, designs, trademarks or trade dress.
Before entering a new market, launching a new product, or committing significant investment to a brand identity or product design, while there is still room to change course cheaply.
%402x.svg){kind=small}
%402x.svg){kind=icon}
%402x.svg){kind=icon}
