Freedom-to-Operate and Validity Opinions

Freedom-to-operate is an essential consideration to any plan to commercialize a technology, whether or not the technology is patentable. A freedom-to-operate analysis evaluates whether there is any third party intellectual property that can potentially block your use of a given technology. While old and well-known technologies may be safely practiced without concern of conflicting intellectual property, both break-through technologies and improvements to existing technologies must consider whether there are third party intellectual property rights that can frustrate your commercial objectives.