Whether you're evaluating a deal, advising a portfolio company, or preparing to file a patent — FTO Checker gives you structured intelligence to act faster and with more confidence.
Below are the most common use cases, grouped by type of user.
Investors and investment professionals
Business angels
You see dozens of deals a year. Most don't justify a $10,000 IP review — but skipping due diligence entirely means flying blind. FTO Checker gives you a structured market and IP landscape report for each opportunity: who the key players are, what the patent density looks like, where the recent funding is going, and what the competitive dynamics are. Enough to ask better questions in your next meeting — or to pass early with confidence.
Micro-VCs and early-stage funds
Your check sizes don't support full-scale legal due diligence on every deal. But your LPs expect rigour. FTO Checker provides a professional-grade intelligence brief — covering patent landscape, market outlook, competitive positioning, and recent transactions — that you can run systematically on every opportunity in your pipeline. The IP Deep Dive adds claim-level patent analysis when a deal moves to the next stage.
Incubators and accelerators
You're supporting cohorts of startups, many of which are building on novel technology. FTO Checker helps your teams and mentors provide structured feedback on IP positioning and market landscape — without needing to engage external counsel for every project. Volume packs make it practical to offer this as a standard part of your programme.
Family offices and corporate venture
You need to vet technology opportunities quickly, often across unfamiliar sectors. FTO Checker delivers a sector-agnostic intelligence brief covering IP density, competitive landscape, and market dynamics — giving your investment team a structured starting point before committing to deeper diligence.
Corporate and product teams
Startup founders
You're building fast and need to understand your competitive environment — both the market and the IP landscape — before raising funds or committing to a direction. FTO Checker shows you who else is active in your space, what's been patented, where funding is flowing, and what the SWOT picture looks like. It's also a powerful asset to share with prospective investors: it shows you've done your homework.
Product teams
You're about to prototype a feature or component that might overlap with existing IP. FTO Checker runs multiple complementary search strategies to surface technically relevant patents. You also get a market context — who's active, what's trending — so you can position your design decisions within the broader competitive picture.
Corporate innovation and M&A teams
You're evaluating a new technology, a potential acquisition, or a partnership. FTO Checker provides a structured landscape scan combining patent data, scientific publications, market intelligence, and recent deals. The report is designed to support internal go/no-go discussions, and can be shared with legal, strategy, or board-level stakeholders.
Technology transfer offices (TTOs)
You're assessing whether an invention is worth patenting, licensing, or spinning out. FTO Checker helps identify both IP friction and market opportunity early. The report includes active patents across jurisdictions, competitive positioning, and funding trends in the relevant space — valuable input for licensing committees, inventors, or external counsel.
Some TTOs also use our reports as a second opinion — to challenge or complement a manual search.
Intellectual property professionals
Patent attorneys and IP consultants
You need a fast, structured input before diving into a full clearance or opinion. FTO Checker surfaces the most technically relevant patents — with AI-generated justification summaries and a CSV export of the full dataset. Use it as a screening layer, a starting point for discussion with clients, or a way to serve budget-conscious clients who can't afford a full manual search upfront.
IP departments
You're managing patent strategy and want an independent first read before committing legal resources. FTO Checker flags technically overlapping patents (not just keyword matches) and places them in a broader market and competitive context — making it useful as an early filter before deeper analysis.
Second opinion and peer review
You've already performed a manual search, but want a second, algorithmically independent perspective. Patent attorneys, TTOs, and IP departments use FTO Checker to double-check key concepts, surface missed patents, or challenge prior assumptions.
Inventors and founders
Patent applicants
You're preparing to file and want to check whether you're too close to existing IP. The report reveals nearby patents and language patterns, helping you refine your claims or terminology before filing.
Independent inventors
You've come up with something new — but is the space already crowded? FTO Checker gives you a structured report with overlapping patents, a market overview, and a summary of relevant academic and industry publications. It's a low-cost way to prepare for a patent attorney meeting, validate a business idea, or kill a risky direction early.