You intend to launch a new product, process or technical use on the marketplace, albeit patented by yourself, or registered as design, model and/or trademark. However, you want to absolutely make sure that you do not infringe (directly or indirectly) on any third party patent rights and prevent from happening that you will be served a writ of summons and that you may be brought to court of justice, your property and goods be confiscated (seizure) and that you be mandated to enter into recognizance (coercive penalty fee payment order) for each and every day that you are alledgedly infringing upon third party rights. Then it is extraordinarily wise to better be safe than sorry and have a "Freedom to Operate search" (a.k.a. FTO or clearance) performed well in advance.
A Freedom to Operate search has a broader scope than an infringement search where only patent literature is subject of search (see also Infringement), since the other industrial property right domains of designs, models and trademarks should be checked too.
The domain of search comprises granted patents that are still in force over the last 21 years (or 26 years in case of crop protection chemicals/pesticides or medicinal pharmaceutical compounds), design and model registrations (25 years) and trademark registrations (unlimited over time) as well as applications which are still in the procedure of granting in those countries and/or regions of interest in view of intended production, transportation and sales. For that purpose we design and build several search strategies with respect to the features of what you are planning to launch in the market place, select the patent, design, model and trademark database(s) to run said built strategies, collect and analyse found results in particular the claims and present a selection of the relevant hits. Subsequently we determine the present legal status of those selected hits (zie Status) to assess whether it concerns enforceable patent, design, model and/or trademark rights that you might be infringing upon, or that you will be infringing if granted, and we draw up a conclusion with our advice how best to proceed (see also Nullity or Opposition). Calling in expert help from a patent and trademark attorney or an IP lawyer for a complete legal FTO-advice is strongly recommended, also for instance for arranging licences between parties or for representing you in opposition proceedings. We have excellent relations to that end.
OSIP Search & Watch can perform such FTO-searching for you in a focussed and effective way by means of professional database searching in the patent, design, model and trademark literature and report the results to you in a handy electronic report.
The cost for a thorough and careful FTO-search in the patent, design, model and trademark literature amounts to the number of spent hours of searching times our hourly rate increased by the costs incurred for data base usage, and additional status, document en agent fees. Order of magnitude 5000 – 50 000 euro (ex VAT) for a "full-blown FTO" is not uncommon. Please bear in mind a long turnaround time of ordinarily some weeks to several months. So it is utterly important to order your FTO-search well in advance (i.e., 6 – 12 months) prior to planned market introduction in order to pass through a flawless and succesful launching.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information or a quotation: 