FTO / Infringement analysis
Check whether your product or service runs into someone else's live patent rights — freedom-to-operate.
When to use this
FTO (Freedom to Operate) only looks at rights that are alive right now (in force or granted). The target is the components of your product or process, and the unit of comparison is the independent claim (claim 1).
If prior-art search is "collect past references", FTO asks "am I caught in the live web of rights right now?". Time window, filters, and interpretation are all different.
How it differs from related work
| Aspect | FTO | Prior-art search | Invalidity search |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Freedom to operate | Check novelty / inventive step | Invalidate someone else's grant |
| Time window | Currently live rights | Before your invention's priority date | Before the target patent's priority date |
| Subject | Your product / process | Your invention | The target patent's claims |
| Comparison unit | Independent claim (element-by-element) | Claim / abstract similarity | Decompose claim into elements |
Recommended LLM prompt patterns
Use the patterns below as-is, or swap in your own variables. Each prompt is paired with the FindIP tool the LLM will call internally.
1. Baseline — product spec → infringement-risk rights
Prompt
"For the product spec below, find the 10 highest-risk patents that are currently granted and unexpired in KR and US, and compare each patent's claim 1 to the product elements one-to-one. [Product spec] (paste spec here)"
Tools: search_patents(country_codes=["KR","US"]) → get_patent_details(sections="claims,legal_status") (filter to live rights only)
2. Prioritize a specific competitor's rights
Prompt
"Among Apple Inc.'s wireless-charging patents that are granted and live in KR / US, pick 5 that pose infringement risk to our product (Qi 5W / 15W dual)."
Tools: applicant_resolve("Apple Inc.") → search_patents(applicant_entity_ids=[...], country_codes=["KR","US"])
3. Generate design-around candidates
Prompt
"For one of the high-risk patents above, propose 3 candidate component changes that would design around claim 1, and re-search to see whether each design-around hits other references."
Tools: get_patent_details → search_patents (re-search the workaround)
4. Counter-evidence for licensing negotiation
Prompt
"Company X is asserting infringement against us on patent KR1012345B1. In the same field, find 5 candidate counter-rights we own (i.e., where Company X may in turn be infringing on us)."
Tools: get_patent_details → search_patents(applicant_entity_ids=[your-company])
Reading the results
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Always verify legal status. Expired, invalidated, withdrawn, or abandoned rights are out of scope for FTO. Check the
legal_statusfield on every hit. -
Infringement requires every element of the independent claim to be present in your product (the All Elements Rule). Partial overlap is not infringement.
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To cover the doctrine of equivalents and indirect infringement, ask the LLM for them explicitly.