Free Tool · Before you file
Will you get sued when you ship?
A 60-second freedom-to-operate risk snapshot. Describe your product and market, and get a risk score, the CPC classes to search, a concrete search strategy, the right depth of FTO, and a cost estimate. Educational decision-support — not a legal opinion — and the right starting point before you commission a $30k FTO.
FTO risk · High
Your FTO risk is high — get a 1-2 hour attorney preliminary before launch.
Recommended: Attorney preliminary FTO — roughly $2,100 to $7,000 (Attorney-led preliminary FTO with opinion letter).
How this risk score is built
- Revenue at risk. In NPE crosshairs — patent assertion letters scale with revenue.
- Tech area patent density. Patents in software are less crowded.
- Channel & geography. Moderate exposure.
- Prior-art search done. No prior art = no map of who might assert what. This is a yellow flag, not a red one — you can fix it.
- Feature surface. 6 features — more surface area means more places a patent could read on you.
Why this matters
- Your risk score is 7/16 — moderate to high. A reasonable founder takes at least an attorney-preliminary look.
- You have not done a prior-art search. Without one, you have no map of which patents are out there and no invalidity defenses pre-built.
CPC classes to search
G06FElectric digital data processing. Generic software methods. Watch for §101 eligibility — many are invalid.G06F9Program control arrangements. Multitasking, scheduling, container orchestration.G06F8Software engineering. Compilers, debuggers, IDEs, code generation.G06F11Error detection / monitoring. Logging, observability, crash reporting.
Search strategy
- Search Google Patents with 2-3 keyword variants of your core feature — try plain English, not claim-style language.
- Use Espacenet's CPC classification search to find patents tagged with the classes from the panel above.
- Search WIPO PATENTSCOPE for international filings — many infringement-relevant patents are never granted in the US.
- For each top-10 hit, read the claims (not the abstract) and check whether every claim element is in your product.
- Pull the file history on USPTO Patent Center — statements made during prosecution can narrow the claims (file-history estoppel).
Prioritized next steps
This week
- Find a patent litigator offering a 1-2 hour preliminary FTO consult. Most charge $500-$2,000.
- Bring this risk snapshot + your 5-10 highest-priority product features + a list of known competitors to the consult.
This month
- Engage the litigator for a written preliminary opinion if the consult flags concerns.
Before launch
- If the preliminary flags serious risk, escalate to a full FTO opinion before launch.
Preliminary, educational decision-support — not a legal opinion and not freedom-to-operate clearance. A real FTO requires a patent attorney. PatentBrief is not a law firm, and this snapshot does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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