By performing clearance and non-infringement searches, your company can improve the odds that it does not infringe the patent or trademark rights of others, thus ensuring that any market success it achieves likely will not be cut short by infringement liability.
Before your company invests heavily in introducing a new product to the market, it can be worthwhile to verify that doing so will not infringe valid IP rights held by others. This verification can be provided via a clearance or “freedom-to-operate” search. Even if patents or registered marks are discovered that raise some degree of infringement concern, substantial vulnerabilities sometimes can be identified in those protections that cast huge questions on their validity, and/or provide substantial leverage for your company to exploit in any negotiations with the owner of those rights.
Unfortunately, IP rights can emerge long after you have performed a clearance search and received the “all clear” signal.
Helping your company avoid infringing other’s emerging patents, while somewhat more challenging, is nevertheless possible via careful monitoring of the patent landscape. For example, special “watch” or monitoring services are available that report, such as on a weekly or monthly basis, all patent publications that, for example, include specific keywords, are linked to particular competitors, and/or relate to defined subject matter classifications of interest.
Similarly, avoiding infringement of other’s marks is possible via a similar “watch” service that keeps an eye out for newly published registration applications for marks that might be viewed as confusingly similar to yours. If you act promptly, you might be able to “oppose” a similar mark’s registration, and prevent another company from registering that mark.