A clear pathway to patenting makes inventions more attractive to potential investors, licensees, and industry partners.

Freedom to operate (FTO) analyses are a critical part of the due diligence you should be performing for any university invention. FTO analysis not only helps identify potential IP rights of other parties to avoid infringement liability, but it’s also a critical de-risking tool that can provide much-desired assurance to the companies and investors you need in order to reach the market.

These analyses should be done at key intervals in the lifespan of a technology. Early-stage FTO analysis can help by enabling the IP holder to modify their innovation design and claims around current patents to limit liability. Late-stage FTO opinions give potential licensees and investors more confidence in the technology and can help with your own internal go/no-go decisions.

But protecting your IP investments isn’t easy or cheap, and too often this important step is skipped due to cost and/or time concerns, or a cursory prior art search may be completed that paints an incomplete picture of the IP landscape.

It doesn’t have to be that way. This webinar will separate the “needs” from the “wants” in FTO analyses so you can save time, money, and resources when performing these critical but often underused assessments.

Here is a brief look at specific topics to be addressed in this one-hour session:

• What is due diligence, and why is it needed?
• Conducting “living” prior art searches to get an accurate and ongoing landscape
  • Early-stage and later stage
  • Patent literature
  • Non-patent literature
• What is the organizational goal of your searches
  • Prior art search
  • Invalidity
  • FTO
• FTO and Technology Transfer
  • Nice-to-haves versus must-haves
  • Cost- and time-saving strategies
  • In-house versus outside firm
• 3 key priorities for FTO