Freedom To Operate Attorneys

Are you concerned about whether your business might be infringing a competitor’s patent?  The patent attorneys at Thomas P. Howard, LLC can address your concerns.  We can conduct an analysis of the patent’s claims and of your product, analyze the risk of infringement, and provide you with an opinion regarding the continued use of the same. Finding a path forward, we can provide you with a written Freedom-to-Operate opinion that you can rely upon and help you to navigate around another pattent in what has become an increasingly crowded market. To be proactive, evaluating existing patents prior to entering a market is a recommended tool for risk mitigation.  We can assist you in conducting that analysis.

In addition to non-infringement defenses, an invalidity analysis also can be relied upon by a company in making business decisions and reduce its pre-litigation exposure in the face of a competitor’s patent. A primary consideration is timing. Once you learn of a potentially adverse patent, you should promptly investigate both non-infringement and invalidity positions and properly document them before litigation. A company that evaluates such patents before a patent lawsuit is filed is generally in a stronger position. Failure to take appropriate and timely action may result in a finding of willful infringement and enhanced damages in litigation. Halo Elecs., Inc. v. Pulse Elecs., Inc., 136 S. Ct. 1923 (2016) (“culpability is generally measured against the knowledge of the actor at the time of the challenged conduct”).