Searching
For all types of intellectual property (IP), originality is fundamental to the scope of the exclusive rights.
Searching gives an insight to the originality of an innovation or trade mark and is a valuable tool in formulating and executing an IP strategy.
Catalyst Intellectual Property subscribes to advanced and specialist IP search databases. Our experts assist in searching to:
-
Uncover prior art relevant to your innovations or brands,
-
Identify IP rights relevant to your freedom to operate,
-
Give advance warning of potential infringement, and
-
Indicate the entrance of new players in a field.
Freedom to operate (FTO)
Specialist freedom to operate (FTO) searching assesses the risk of infringement by searching existing patents to identify potential conflicts. FTO analysis helps to efficiently bring any new innovations to market by identifying legal risks and reducing the chances of costly IP disputes.
The best time to consider FTO is once the key features of the product been decided on, but before a commercial product is launched.
Because FTO searching is a highly specialised area, it should be conducted by patent attorneys who are skilled in the relevant technical area.
For more information on FTO, get in touch with our team of experienced patent attorneys.
Trademark searching
New trade marks or branding elements should be searched before they are used to assess the risk of trade mark infringement and/or breach of unregistered trade mark rights. Trade mark searching is also the best way to assess whether a new trade mark is registrable and likely to form a strong valuable asset for a business.
Effective trade mark search and analysis should be conducted by someone knowledgeable in the application of the legal tests for infringement, and up to date with case law trends in applying these tests. This experience is developed over years of practice and is not readily substituted through current AI search platforms.
For more information on trade mark searching, get in touch with our team.