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Management Forum

Freedom-to-Operate Searching Training Course

Get to grips with the fundamentals of FTO searching, understand the scope of a search and analyse the types of rights you will encounter.

★★★★★ "Stephen Adams was excellent. He has experience in the field, was easy to follow and gave a good answ... more (8)"

22 April 2024 »
from £499

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Format: Live online
CPD: 6 hours for your records
Certificate of completion

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Course overview

To excel in your searching role you need to get to grips with the fundamentals of FTO, understand the scope of a search and analyse the types of rights you will encounter. Critically, you also need to understand how to interpret and evaluate the results from an FTO perspective. Are you up to date with the latest searching methods and technologies? Can you verify the status of patents and report your FTO search accurately?

This must-attend, value-rich event, led by an expert in the field, will answer all your queries and ensure you’re working effectively and comprehensively to get the best results for your business or client.

This course is part of our collection of IP & Patents Training Courses.

Who should attend?

All those working in IP or patent information or patent engineer roles either in industry or legal businesses, including:
- IP managers
- Patent research specialists and analysts
- Patent attorneys
R&D scientists and engineers wanting to ensure they are not ‘re-inventing the wheel’
Customer service and training representatives in the commercial information provider community who want to know more about what their customers do with patent data
All those wanting to consolidate and enhance their skills in searching

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The Freedom-to-Operate Searching course will cover:

Background and motivations to freedom-to-operate searching

Understanding the background to a search
Extent and definitions
Terminology variation and search objectives
Types of infringement
Clearance
Duties of the searcher
Timescales and scope

Fundamentals of FTO search scope

Considerations for source selection
Understanding terminology in the prior art
Analysing the search question: multiple aspects or features
Understanding the results from an FTO perspective and interpreting claims: multiple aspects or features

Methods for searching for claimed features; full text and text segments, extended classifications

Stages of the search
The subject matter
Scope and sequence
Source selection and searchable claims
Full text and text segments searching techniques
Extended classifications and navigating the hierarchy
Limitation of results
Using basic legal status tools to assist evaluation – finding amended claims
After the subect search – verifying status of patents

Reporting aspects for an FTO search

Form of the report
What to report – content and scope
How to report it
Follow-up possibilities

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Stephen Adams
Magister Ltd

Stephen Adams is Director of Magister Ltd, a patents documentation consultancy and training service. For a number of years, he worked as a technical information searcher in the field of food science at the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food. Following a period as editor of ‘International Packaging Abstracts’ at Pira International, he moved to ICI Agrochemicals (later Zeneca Agrochemicals) to become their principal patent searcher. He founded Magister Limited in 1997. Between 2002 and 2006, Stephen served as the first non-US ‘Director at Large’ for the Patent Information Users Group (PIUG Inc). In 2014, he was re-elected as Vice-Chair of the same organisation. In May 2008, he received a Special Recognition Award from the PIUG. He is also on the editorial board of ‘World Patent Information’, the international journal for industrial property documentation, information, classification and statistics. In 2012 Stephen was named as the IPI-Award recipient by the Selection Board of the International Patent Information Award for that year. He is the author of ‘Information Sources in Patents’, as well as numerous publications and articles.

More details

NEW higher discounts for multiple bookings - bring your colleagues to make your training budget go further:

30% off the 2nd delegate*
40% off the 3rd delegate*
50% off the 4th delegate*

Please contact us for pricing if you are interested in booking 5 or more delegates

22 April 2024

Live online

09:30-17:00 UK (London) (UTC+01)
10:30-18:00 Paris (UTC+02)
04:30-12:00 New York (UTC-04)
Course code 13616

GBP 499 599
EUR 719 859
USD 823 979

Until 18 Mar

1 day live online training
Browser-based, no download usually required
See presenters and interact with fellow attendees
Download documentation and certification of completion
Fair transfer and cancellation policy

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Not ready to book yet?

for 7 days, no obligation

* Early booking discounts may not be combined with other discounts or offers. As such, the discounts for 2nd/3rd/4th delegates are based on the full price.

Reviews of IPI's Freedom-to-Operate Searching training course

Very comprehensive talk, with great content.

Feb 25 2021

Luke Townsend United Kingdom
IP Researcher, Oxford Biomedica

Feb 28 2020

Stephen Adams was excellent. He has experience in the field, was easy to follow and gave a good answer to difficult questions.

Shire Elmi Norway
Examiner, Patentstyret

Oct 11 2018

The speaker was clearly extremely knowledgable and delivered the material in a fun way.

Kapil Agashi United Kingdom
Patent Advisor, Boots UK Ltd

Feb 9 2017

Enjoyed the course and found very useful. Would recommend.

Alan Hazzard United Kingdom
Head of Intellectual Property, Pilkington Technology Management Limited

Feb 9 2017

The course was well structured and delivered by a very experienced person. It delivered what I had expected in a clear and concise manner – I am happy.

Peter O'Donoghue United Kingdom
Technology Partner, De Beers UK Ltd

Feb 9 2017

Very well-structured course with interesting subject matter.

Dionysios Athanassiou Greece
IP Enforcement Engineer, BIC VIolex S.A