Challenges of freedom to operate analyses in Mexico

01-04-2012

Hector Chagoya Cortes and Mariana Gonzalez Vargas

Freedom-to-operate analyses are a useful tool for companies to ensure they do not violate third party intellectual property by initiating commercial exploitation of products, processes or services.

Freedom-to-operate (FTO) analyses are a useful tool for companies to ensure they do not violate third party intellectual property by initiating commercial exploitation of products, processes or services; it is particularly useful when this study is carried out at product development stage to prevent expensive legal costs in the future.

Of course, the actual analysis requires the identification of patents that may be potentially infringed, which is where we find the first challenges to FTO analyses in Mexico.

Identification of patents that may be infringed is more difficult in Mexico than in jurisdictions such as the US and Europe. Patents filed in such jurisdictions are easily available online through several databases (national, regional and international, both paid and free) that provide user-friendly searching and analysis interfaces.


WIPR