FTO Basics
What is a Freedom to Operate search — and when do you need one?
A plain-English guide to FTO: what it answers, what it doesn't, and the moments in a product's life when it pays for itself.
· 6 min read
Freedom to Operate · Patent Search
Launch with certainty. Know your patent risk before you ship.
Expert FTO, patentability and invalidity searches for startups, manufacturers, R&D teams and law firms — delivered under NDA, with risk-ranked findings and claim charts your counsel can act on.
- NDA before any disclosure
- Strictly confidential handling
- 100+ clients served
- Ph.D.-led expert review
- GST-compliant invoices
Trusted by
- Listed companies
- CSIR laboratories
- Universities & colleges
- Research institutions
- Startups & MSMEs
- Individual inventors
- Clients across India & abroad
- 100+
- Specialist search services
- 7
- A week of expert support
- 6 days
- Technology sectors covered
- 10
Services
Compare servicesEvery search your product lifecycle needs.
From first idea to market launch and beyond — one specialist team, one point of contact, consistent quality.
Freedom to Operate (FTO) Search
Clear the path to launch by identifying in-force patents your product may infringe.
7–10 business days from ₹35,000
Patentability (Novelty) Search
Find out whether your invention is new before you invest in drafting and filing.
5–7 business daysfrom ₹18,000
Invalidity Search
Locate prior art that could invalidate a patent asserted against you — or test your own.
10–15 business daysfrom ₹55,000
Patent Landscape Analysis
See who is patenting what, where and how fast in your technology space.
3–5 weeksfrom ₹1,20,000
State-of-the-Art Search
A rapid, broad survey of existing solutions before you start designing.
5–7 business daysfrom ₹25,000
Infringement & Claim Mapping
Element-by-element evidence of how a product reads on patent claims.
7–12 business days per productfrom ₹45,000
How it works
From disclosure to decision in four steps.
A transparent process with a fixed scope, fixed price and a committed delivery date.
Step 1 · Day 0
Submit
Tell us about your product and target markets. We sign an NDA before you share any technical details, then confirm scope, jurisdictions and a fixed quote.
Step 2 · Days 1–4
Search
Your assigned analyst builds a documented strategy — keywords, CPC/IPC classes, citation chasing — across global patent databases.
Step 3 · Days 4–6
Analysis
Relevant patents are screened, legal status verified and high-risk claims charted element by element. A senior reviewer QA-checks everything.
Step 4 · Day 7
Report
Receive a risk-ranked PDF report with claim charts and an Excel reference list — and a walkthrough call for your questions.
Legal-grade confidentiality
Your invention never leaves a locked room.
Clients share unpublished inventions with us. We designed the platform around that responsibility — not around convenience.
NDA before disclosure
We sign a mutual non-disclosure agreement before you share a single technical detail.
Secure file exchange
Disclosures and reports travel over encrypted channels — never as open links — and PDFs can be password-protected.
Least-privilege access
Only the specialists working on your project can open your files. Nothing is shared without your written consent.
Deleted when done
Your technical files are deleted 90 days after delivery, or sooner on request. We never use them for anything else.
FTO Search Report
Redacted sampleSee the work
Download a redacted sample report.
See exactly what you'll receive: executive summary, documented search strategy, risk-ranked references and a full claim chart.
- Executive risk summary
- Keywords & CPC/IPC classes
- Risk-ranked reference table
- Element-by-element claim chart
Led by a scientist
Searched by people who understand your science.
Dr. Rupalika founded Ragulika IP to give inventors, startups, universities and companies direct access to scientifically trained IP specialists. She leads the firm's patent search practice and oversees the quality of every FTO and search report.
Dr. Rupalika · Ph.D., M.Sc.
Founder, Ragulika IP
Industries
All industriesDomain specialists, not generalists.
Your search is run by an analyst with a degree in your field — chemistry, electronics, mechanical, life sciences or software.
Knowledge Center
All articlesPractical guidance on patent risk.
FTO Basics
FTO vs. patentability vs. invalidity: choosing the right search
Three searches, three different questions. Picking the wrong one is the most common — and most expensive — mistake we see.
· 5 min read
Search Strategy
Inside a professional patent search: keywords, classifications and citations
Keyword searching alone misses relevant patents. Here is how analysts combine classification codes, citation chasing and full-text queries.
· 7 min read
Start today
Know your patent risk before you commit.
Tell us about your product and target markets. We'll recommend the right search, scope and turnaround — with a fixed quote within one business day.