It is important to obtain an overview of potential risks of infringement of someone else’s IP rights, typically patents, before a new product or process is commercialized. A patent attorney will be able to evaluate potential infringement by conducting a patent search of pre-existing rights of a product or process. The relevant patents are analysed in terms of scope of protection, geographical distribution and period of validity. Taken together, this will result in a final conclusion as to whether there is “freedom to operate” and what restrictions may be present.

In some cases, it may also be necessary to conduct a freedom-to-operate examination prior to filing a patent application.