Patracode helps you in giving a clearance search report for any industrial design of an article. This is also known as a Freedom to Operate search for an Industrial design. This search is mainly conducted to ensure that the industrial design that you are aiming to use does not cause any form of infringement.
Patracode’s design team has successfully completed several Industrial Design FTO’s in many subject domains, and we have provided our clients with the relevant strategies to be incorporated to take things further. An FTO or clearance search is conducted to ensure that a specific design of an article has a clearance to be utilized, ensuring that there are no potential barriers and to avoid any chances of infringement.
Once a clearance search in conducted on an industrial design the client gets a complete overview on relevant designs that may be of a threat to theirs. It also gives them an understanding of whether any modifications would be advisable for the design to have a clearance. Fighting infringement cases can be a big hassle, and it is always advisable to avoid the risk by being aware of the industrial design scenario with respect to the industrial design of the client.
Patracode provides a detailed report based on different actions or modifications that the client can apply to obtain a clearance to use the design. There are some main aspects that should be kept in mind for conducting an Industrial Design clearance search. An FTO search is restricted to only accepted and active Industrial Designs.
An FTO search in most cases is restricted to the description of the figures for which protection is sought out for. The jurisdiction of interest is also a very important aspect to keep in mind while performing the search and conclusion. The time period from which the design protection dates back to are also very essential; in other words a time period of about 15 to 17 years from the date of the search is taken into consideration for the clearance search strategy.
This is because an Industrial Design protection is given for a period of 10 years which is extendable for an additional period of 5 years with payment of renewal fee. Therefore it is always advisable to keep a time duration of about 15 – 17 years. When conducting a clearance search we give more importance to the classification under which the design has been filed, the jurisdiction and the description of the main figures. The relevant results based on these aspects are collected and analyzed to generate a detailed clearance search report.
These clearance Searches are provided mainly to give yourself a warranty/assurance regarding your design of interest being safe from infringement. Another aspect to keep in mind is that many of the Industrial Design applications which are still not published will not come to our notice and therefore in such cases, it is advisable to conduct a preliminary search every 6 month intervals.
We at Patracode are well versed with FTO searches as our team has conducted several Clearance Searches based on Industrial Designs.
