FTO Report

A Freedom to Operate (FTO) analysis asks a different question than a patentability search. Instead of “is my idea novel?”, FTO asks: can I make and sell this product without infringing someone else’s active patent?

GoVeda’s FTO Report is now available in Beta with full access for all accounts (Free and Pro alike). It produces a multi-chapter report with risk assessment, claim charts, and design-around suggestions across up to 51 jurisdictions.

When to run an FTO

Common situations:

• Before launching a product in a new market
• During due diligence on an acquisition
• When evaluating a licensing offer
• Entering a technology space with many active filers (pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, etc.)

FTO vs. Novelty vs. Landscape

GoVeda offers three report modes, and people regularly mix them up. Quick reference:

A novel invention can still infringe a third-party patent, and a non-infringing product may not be patentable. The analyses answer different questions.

How to run an FTO Report

Switch to Report mode

On the GoVeda home page, switch the input to Report mode (mode selector at the bottom of the search bar).

Pick FTO

Open the report-type selector and choose FTO (marked with a Beta badge).

Describe the product

Describe what you plan to make or sell. The more concrete the better. Material composition, structural components, manufacturing method, intended use, and operating parameters all give the analysis more to work with.

You can attach product documents (up to 5 files, 50 MB total) for richer context.

Fill in the intake card

Instead of asking one question at a time, GoVeda presents a single card with every field it needs. Required fields are marked with a dot (●); the rest are optional but sharpen the analysis.

Field	Required	What it does
Product Name	●	Names the report so you can find it later
Product Type	●	Sets the technical framing for the search. Picked from a list (Device/Hardware, Medical Device, Software/IT, Method/Process, and so on)
Marketing / Sales Jurisdictions	●	Which patent offices get searched
Manufacturing Same as Marketing?	●	If no, a Manufacturing Jurisdictions field appears and must be filled
Planned Launch Date	●	Sets the temporal scope
Analysis Trigger		Why you’re running this: launch, funding round, litigation threat
Commercialization End Date		How long you’ll commercialize
Client Information		Context about who the analysis is for
Exclusions		Patents or parties to leave out
IPC/CPC Codes		Narrows the search when you already know the classification

Anything GoVeda can read from your description is pre-filled. If you already named your jurisdictions, that field arrives filled in. The commercialization end date must fall after the planned launch date.

Submit and wait

FTO reports are heavier than searches. Expect several minutes of processing.

Progress stays in the chat rather than sending you to a separate page, and the report streams in chapter by chapter as each section is ready. You can leave and come back. Reopening the session mid-generation returns you to the same progress card. GoVeda emails you when the report finishes or fails, so you don’t have to sit on the page.

The completed report is named after the product you described, so it’s easy to find later in your history.

What’s in the report

A typical FTO report has 14 chapters. The most important ones to read first:

Executive Summary. The overall risk picture and the patents that matter most.

Risk Heatmap. A matrix view of every retained patent against technical overlap and performance impact. Lets you spot the high-risk filings at a glance.

Identified Patents. Each retained patent with key metadata, status, and which product features it implicates.

Claim Charts. The core analytical output: per-claim, per-element comparison between the patent and your product. Each row shows whether the element is met, partially met, or not met.

Design-Around Suggestions. For high-risk patents, suggested engineering changes that would step outside the claim. Grouped by Now / Next / Last Resort based on feasibility.

Conclusions and Disclaimers. What you should and shouldn’t conclude from the report, with attorney-reviewed legal language.

What’s covered

• Up to 51 jurisdictions (US, EP, CN, JP, SG, KR, DE, GB, and more)
• Granted patents and pending applications
• PCT (WO) applications still in their national-phase entry window
• EP member-state validity (via INPADOC)
• US Patent Term Adjustment (where USPTO data exists)
• Per-claim element analysis on every retained patent
• Risk ratings (high / medium / low / insignificant)
• Design-around suggestions for high-risk patents
• PDF export with full claim charts and risk assessment

For the full coverage matrix and known limits, see FTO Fundamentals → What an FTO report covers.

Multilingual input

Quality gate

Some product descriptions are too thin for a useful FTO, and GoVeda checks before spending anything.

Length floor. The Generate button stays disabled until your description reaches about 30 characters, roughly five or six English words. Chinese, Japanese and Korean have lower floors, since those scripts pack more meaning per character. Attaching a product document drops the floor to 5. Emoji don’t count toward it.

Substance check. Past the length floor, the agent chat judges whether the description gives the analysis enough to work with. Inputs like “my new gadget” or “a software tool” get targeted follow-up questions about what’s missing rather than a generic error.

The check runs once, in the chat, before you fill in the intake card. A description the chat accepted won’t be turned away later.

The gate weighs what your invention actually is. A purely mechanical product isn’t marked down for saying nothing about material composition, and a software product isn’t asked how it’s manufactured. Missing detail only counts against you when it’s detail that invention genuinely needs.

No credits are charged for rejected reports.

Disclaimer

Next steps

• FTO Fundamentals. Plain-English background on FTO concepts.
• Sample Reports. See real examples.
• Reading a Report. How to interpret the output.