---
name: fto-screen
description: Use this skill when the user wants a first-pass patent screen of a supplier, partner, or planned piece of work before qualifying it: which patents and published applications does the other party hold under every name variant, and which of their claims use terms from the planned work. Inputs include a description of the planned work, the party's legal name and known variants, and the approved patent databases. The skill records each patent's number, assignee as printed, filing date, and legal status, lists independent claims that use terms from the work with the overlapping words quoted, and prepares the list for counsel. It never says the work is clear. Triggers on requests like "screen this partner's patents," "freedom to operate check for this supplier," "does this supplier hold patents near our work," "run the patent screen for onboarding," or "what patents should counsel read."
---

# Freedom-to-Operate Screen
This skill is Labor as Code™ for the freedom-to-operate check in
*Discoverability Engineering*. The know-how is a qualifier's habit of
asking, before signing with a supplier or partner, which patents might
sit in the way and who owns them.

The method comes from "Patents and Prior Art Are Public Evidence That
Needs a Date Anyone Can Prove," which says what an analysis involves and
why the claims decide it. Read it for the limits. This skill does the
first pass. It does not retell Merriden's patent watch or Stallworth's
onboarding question.

**This skill produces a screen, never an opinion.** An analysis is an
opinion from a qualified professional for one country on one date. The
skill lists what counsel should read. It never writes "clear," "no
infringement," or "safe," and it never says a claim is or is not
infringed. The patent attorney reads every listed claim and decides
whether it needs an analysis.

## Before running

1. **The planned work, in enough detail to search.** Get the technical
   terms, the product or process, the countries where it will be made
   and sold, and the date work starts.
2. **The other party's names.** Get the legal name and every variant
   from `specs/ontology/relationships.yaml` or the user: the DBA,
   former names, parent, subsidiaries, and misspellings. Names the party
   prints on patents can differ from any of these.
3. **The approved databases.** Read `specs/surfaces/patent-and-
   literature.yaml`. Note what each covers and what it leaves out.
   For example, a public U.S. patent search covers U.S. patents and
   published applications and no foreign patent databases.

## Step 1: Search under every name

1. Search each database for patents and published applications under
   every name variant, and for inventors the user names.
2. Record for each result: number, assignee exactly as printed, filing
   date, issue or publication date, and legal status. Read the legal
   status from the database and record the date. Mark it UNKNOWN when it
   cannot be read; never assume in force or expired.
3. Note whether a maintenance fee lapse or an expiry is shown, and the
   source of that fact.

## Step 2: Read the independent claims

1. For each in-force or unknown-status patent, quote each independent
   claim word for word.
2. List the terms from the planned work that appear in the claim, and
   quote the overlapping words.
3. List the terms in the claim that the planned work does not use. Do
   not weigh them. Counsel weighs them.
4. Do not paraphrase a claim. The claims define the rights.

## Step 3: State the limits of the search

Write these lines in every screen:

1. **What the search cannot see:** applications not yet published,
   provisional applications, applications under a secrecy order, and
   applications filed with a request not to publish.
2. **Where it looked:** the databases and the countries. A patent
   applies in one country.
3. **The date:** the search date. The literature changes as
   applications publish and patents issue.

## Step 4: Conclude

Write, in plain words with reasons:

1. **The screen's result.** How many patents and applications were
   found, how many claims use terms from the work, and which three the
   attorney should read first, with the reason for the order.
2. **What would settle the open points:** a status the database did not
   show, a name variant not yet searched, a country not covered.
3. **What a party's own answer would add.** Some primes and partners ask
   for a list of patents that cover the work and any patent assertion
   received. Prepare the supplier's answer from its Prior Art Records
   and its patent watch, marked as a draft for the attorney.

Where a search returned nothing, say what was searched and what it
could not see. A search that finds nothing is not a finding that nothing
exists.

## What this skill does not do

- It does not give an opinion on infringement or validity.
- It does not contact the other party or send anything outside the
  company.
- It does not treat a government-use clause as a reason to skip the
  screen. Counsel reads the clause in the actual contract.

## Used in *Acquired Alpha*

A buyer that plans to depend on a supplier's software can screen the supplier first. In *Acquired Alpha* the screen is one of the inspection-rung checks (the buyer looks at what the seller holds and what it may infringe) and its result goes on the supplier's Claim Card. The skill's own conclusion does not change.