The Everyday Dictionary of Law
The Everyday Dictionary of Law provides legal vocabulary currently in use in common law jurisdictions such as most notably, in the United States. The dictionary is compiled specifically for commercial and intellectual property law practitioners, which provides simple definitions and meanings in American English, for legal terms (including Latin terms) used in formal correspondence, court proceedings, and motion practice as well as common language words that are frequently used in the same. It is a simple reference guide for attorneys, paralegals as well as casual readers who need to check the meaning of a particular legal term in due course of their work.
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FTO
Definition:
As the WIPO describes: “A Freedom to Operate (FTO) analysis invariably begins by searching patent literature for issued or pending patents, and obtaining a legal opinion as to whether a product, process or service may be considered to infringe any patent(s) owned by others.” It may also be called a clearance search or non-infringement search and the search analysis essentially constitutes a risk assessment.
The key distinction between a patentability search and an FTO search is that an FTO search only includes patents. An inventor may have freedom to operate in an area, but this doesn’t mean that he or she can patent there.