Tag: startup advice

When you’re building something new—something game-changing—you don’t want to waste time or money running into walls you didn’t see coming. One of those hidden walls is called “Freedom to Operate” or FTO. And it matters a lot more than most founders think. Why FTO Isn’t Just a Legal Box to Check FTO Shapes Product Decisions…

Willful Infringement: How FTO Helps Avoid Treble Damages

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If you’re building something new—software, hardware, biotech, AI, or anything innovative—the last thing you want is to get slammed with a lawsuit for patent infringement. Even worse? Getting hit with willful infringement, where a judge can order you to pay up to three times the normal damages just because they believe you should have known…

Opinion of Counsel: When You Need It and How to Use It

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If you’re building something valuable—a new product, a new way of doing something, or a piece of software that changes the game—you’re going to run into legal questions. It’s just part of the process. And one of the smartest moves you can make as a founder or engineer is knowing when to bring in an…

Design-Around Strategies: Turn FTO Red Flags Into Green Lights

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You’re building something big. It’s working. Customers love it. Investors are interested. But then your freedom-to-operate (FTO) search comes back—and it’s not all clear skies. A few red flags show up. Maybe even a few patents that look a little too close for comfort. What an FTO Red Flag Really Means (And Why It’s Not…

Finding Blocking Patents: Families, Continuations, Divisionals

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You’re building something new. Maybe it’s code, hardware, or a product that’s never been done before. You’re moving fast, thinking big, and putting in long hours. But there’s this one quiet question in the back of your head: What if someone already patented this? You don’t want to run into a landmine later—a patent that…

Claim Charting for FTO: Map Specs to Competitor Claims

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When you’re building something new, you’re usually focused on getting it to work, getting it to market, and getting people to use it. But there’s one thing that can quietly wreck all of that: patents you didn’t know about. That’s why smart teams do something called freedom to operate, or FTO. It’s a way to…

Scoping an FTO Search Around Real Product Features

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If you’re building something real, something that works, you don’t want legal surprises down the road. You want to launch fast, stay protected, and sleep at night knowing no one’s going to send you a cease and desist letter the week you go live. What FTO Really Means When You’re Shipping a Product FTO Isn’t…

FTO vs. Patentability: What’s the Difference and Why It Matters

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When you’re deep into building something new—whether it’s a software tool, a machine learning model, or a new type of hardware—you’re probably thinking about protecting it. You might also be wondering if you’re legally in the clear to launch it. Those are two very different questions, and they lead to two very different legal checks:…

Freedom-to-Operate 101: Clearance Before You Launch

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