Freedom to operate

You have a granted patent on your product. You are about to launch. You are still not safe, and the reason surprises most founders.

In simple words

An assessment of whether making or selling your product in a given country would infringe someone else's rights that are in force there. It is a different question from whether your own invention is patentable.

Think of it as

Your patent says “nobody else may”. FTO asks “may I?”

Why it matters

A patent is a right to exclude, not a licence to practise. Your product can be simultaneously patentable by you and blocked by someone else's broader patent covering a component or a step you rely on.

A simple example

You patent an improved battery casing. A third party holds an in-force patent on the electrode chemistry your product uses. Your patent is valid; your launch still infringes theirs.

Common mistake

Treating a patentability search as an FTO search. Patentability looks at what was published anywhere; FTO looks at what is in force where you plan to sell, and reads claims rather than disclosures.

Where it comes from

Patents Act 1970 - section 48; the absence of any statutory right to work one’s own patented invention