A clear pathway to patenting makes inventions more attractive to potential investors, licensees, and industry partners.
Freedom to operate (FTO) analyses are a critical part of the due diligence you should be performing for any university invention. FTO analysis not only helps identify potential IP rights of other parties to avoid infringement liability, but it’s also a critical de-risking tool that can provide much-desired assurance to the companies and investors you need in order to reach the market.
These analyses should be done at key intervals in the lifespan of a technology. Early-stage FTO analysis can help by enabling the IP holder to modify their innovation design and claims around current patents to limit liability. Late-stage FTO opinions give potential licensees and investors more confidence in the technology and can help with your own internal go/no-go decisions.
But protecting your IP investments isn’t easy or cheap, and too often this important step is skipped due to cost and/or time concerns, or a cursory prior art search may be completed that paints an incomplete picture of the IP landscape.
It doesn’t have to be that way. This webinar will separate the “needs” from the “wants” in FTO analyses so you can save time, money, and resources when performing these critical but often underused assessments.
We’re partnering with attorney and veteran tech transfer executive Joe Runge, JD, MS, Associate Director/Executive in Residence, The UNeTech Institute/UNeMed Corporation at the University of Nebraska, for this practical and insightful presentation:
Here is a brief look at specific topics to be addressed in this one-hour session:
- What is due diligence, and why is it needed?
- Conducting “living” prior art searches to get an accurate and ongoing landscape
- Early-stage and later stage
- Patent literature
- Non-patent literature
- What is the organizational goal of your searches
- Prior art search
- Invalidity
- FTO
- FTO and Technology Transfer
- Nice-to-haves versus must-haves
- Cost- and time-saving strategies
- In-house versus outside firm
- 3 key priorities for FTO
Meet your program leader
Joe Runge, JD MS
Associate Director/Executive in Residence
The UNeTech Institute/UNeMed Corporation
University of Nebraska Medical Center
University of Nebraska Omaha
Joe is a registered patent lawyer, a published scientist and sought-after expert on intellectual property and entrepreneurship. In a 17-year career in technology transfer, joe has negotiated contracts, evaluated inventions, protected intellectual property, licensed technologies, launched startups and built a unique medical technology ecosystem in Omaha, Nebraska. Joe supervises over $3 million of externally funded entrepreneurial and translational research grants. As part of UNeTech, Joe is working with his colleagues to leverage community entrepreneurship, university inventions, and economic development to launch more and better university technology startups.
