What is FTO Checker?

FTO Checker delivers a market and IP landscape report in 90 seconds. A structured brief covering patents, competitors, funding activity, regulatory context, and scientific publications — based on the written description of an invention.

This page summarizes what the report is, how it's generated, and how we handle the data you submit.

FTO Checker is an automated patent and market intelligence tool, useful when you're still exploring an idea. You describe an invention in your own words; the system analyzes it against hundreds of millions of patents, academic publications, market data, and recent funding activity. Ninety seconds later, you receive a structured report.

The report is built to support the conversation that happens before a formal freedom-to-operate or patentability analysis — helping inventors, founders, investors, and IP professionals get their bearings in a new technical and commercial space without committing to weeks of research or thousands of dollars in legal fees.

One thing to keep in mind: FTO Checker is not a substitute for a formal legal opinion. Only a qualified patent attorney can produce that, after examining specific claims against specific products. The report is designed to make that conversation more productive — not to replace it.

How does FTO Checker work?

The process is designed for non-specialists. No patent expertise required, no legalese needed.

Describe. Describe your invention in your own words, in any language. Tell us what it does, how it works, and what makes it unique. The system handles the technical translation into search queries.
Analyze. The pipeline analyzes hundreds of millions of patents, searches scientific publications, and scans funding activity to map your patent landscape. It identifies similar technologies, adjacent innovation areas, and white space opportunities.
Receive. In under 90 seconds, you receive a comprehensive report by email — making the technical and commercial landscape around your invention instantly readable.

What does the report contain?

Each report is structured around three layers of intelligence.

Market intelligence

Technology SWOT analysis
Competitive landscape with key players and their products
Recent deals, funding rounds, and acquisitions
Regulatory snapshot for the selected jurisdictions
Regional R&D distribution

Patent intelligence

Top 10 most similar active patents, with AI-generated comparisons against your invention
Top 10 most similar pending patent applications
Patent holders mapped against technical concepts
White space analysis — areas where patent activity is sparse
Adjacent technologies identified across the patent landscape
Selected scientific publications related to the technology domain

Report format

Selection of jurisdiction(s) — Europe, US, WO, CA, and others
Full patent list available as Excel export, beyond the top 10 summarized in the report

What data does FTO Checker use?

The analysis combines four categories of data sources.

Patents. 163M+ patent publications from 100+ patent offices worldwide, including claims, classifications, citations, and family relationships.
Science. 240M+ academic publications across all disciplines, with citation networks and institutional affiliations.
Market. Market intelligence sources covering market sizing, competitive positioning, recent transactions, and regulatory context.
News. Real-time news and funding databases for recent deals, partnerships, and sector activity.

Each report draws on these sources together, so the patent landscape you see is connected to the market activity, the funding signals, and the scientific work happening around your invention.

Is my invention description kept confidential?

We know your invention description is something you'd rather not share lightly. Here is how we handle it.

Encrypted at every stage. All data is protected in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256-GCM), using the same encryption standards as banks and government agencies.
Deleted after processing. Once your report is delivered, your invention description is permanently removed from our server and database. No backups, no indexing, no reuse.
Not used for AI training. Your input is not used to train, fine-tune, or evaluate any AI model — neither ours nor any third party's.
Never submitted verbatim. Before querying patent databases, the system rewrites your description into several neutral technical formulations. Your exact wording is never exposed to external services.
ISO/IEC 27001 certified infrastructure. All processing runs on infrastructure that meets the international gold standard for data security.
EU-based. All data is processed and stored on servers located in the European Union, ensuring GDPR compliance.

Each report includes a clear confidentiality statement. We are not a law firm, but we treat your invention as confidential by default — and we never reuse, disclose, or train models on it. You can consult our privacy policy for more information on that topic.

Where can I learn more?

For sample reports, pricing options, and additional resources on patent due diligence, visit ftochecker.com.

About the IP and market landscape report