By Design: Registered Design FTO Analysis

Freedom to Operate (FTO) or "clearance" is the process by which a company assesses whether it is able to launch a product into a market in view of any third party intellectual property rights. For many companies, this is a crucial step in the product development cycle. FTO analysis can be performed in many ways but it is generally aimed at the same question: what is the risk of our product infringing someone else's IP?

In its simplest form, a company might search for similar products in the field in question to assess whether there are any relevant third party IP rights in directly competing products. More complex forms of FTO work can involve extensive searching for any IP rights in the relevant technology area, obtaining infringement opinions on particular IP rights, or even taking steps to invalidate a potentially troublesome third party IP right.