Generally, the ability to use or commercialize a product or process without infringing another party's valid intellectual property (IP) rights, usually patents. In particular, a business may seek a freedom-to-operate (FTO) analysis and opinion from a patent attorney to identify patent infringement risk and provide a potential defense to a willful infringement or inducement of infringement claim before launching or developing a new product or process or after receiving a patent notice letter.

The patent attorney evaluates potential infringement and, in certain circumstances, the patent's validity. The resulting opinion may, subject to certain limitations and disclaimers, conclude that the client's product or process would not infringe the patent, the patent is invalid, or both.

For more information on freedom-to-operate studies, see Practice Note, Freedom-to-Operate Studies.