Accurately assessing your freedom to operate relative to the scope of competitors’ intellectual property rights is an important component of how Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP can support your product development cycle. Our lawyers fully understand that, given the costs of resolving legal disputes and the potential monetary and injunctive remedies available against infringers, the consequences of introducing an infringing product into the marketplace can be severe. We provide solid legal opinions regarding IP scope and validity not only to support informed product introduction decisions, but also due diligence associated with business mergers and acquisitions, joint venture relationships, and intellectual property acquisition initiatives.
Fitch Even lawyers are proficient at helping clients aggressively exploit their own innovations while acting in a commercially reasonable manner with respect to the intellectual property rights of their competitors. And because no organization can afford to have its product development and growth limited by unwarranted third-party IP threats, our firm offers product clearance analysis and freedom-to-operate studies of exceptional depth and quality. We provide the legal insight, technical knowledge, and disciplined analysis needed to evaluate risk, identify opportunities, and make sound and well-informed business decisions.
All product clearance projects are handled by lawyers who have the appropriate background to fully understand the relevant technical features of the product, as well as the possible alternatives. We rely on experienced professional searchers and on our own electronic search capabilities to define the relevant competitive IP landscape. Our lawyers can efficiently identify the most relevant IP assets and drill into a deeper analysis of core issues such as claim scope, infringement risk, and validity. If an infringement concern arises, we can help guide the product development toward a non-infringing design, oftentimes leading to potentially patentable improvements to earlier approaches. Fitch Even’s litigation experience is leveraged throughout all phases of the analysis to ensure a realistic assessment of the potential scope of competitive rights and the risks associated with each option under consideration by the client.
We provide highly competent independent legal opinions relating to the validity and/or non-infringement of competitor's rights. We also counsel organizations of all types on the establishment of practices and procedures for developing and documenting a comprehensive record of good faith to minimize the risk of enhanced damages at trial. Our active IP litigation practice allows us to provide realistic validity and infringement advice that is heightened by our actual experience in the courtroom pursuing and defending against infringement claims. The firm’s strengths and acumen in all these areas results in a full-service capability that supports your decision-making at every phase of IP asset management.