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Patent / Freedom-to-Operate Analysis

BD / IPIP / patent analyst

Given a query describing a proposed product (a molecule/modality for a target+indication with defining features — payload, linker, format), assess freedom-to-operate against a curated CN/US/WO patent-family corpus: find the relevant/blocking families, analyse claim overlap (composition-of-matter vs. method-of-treatment, genus vs. species), account for legal status and expiry, and render a CLEAR/WATCH/BLOCKED verdict with specific blocking claims and credible design-arounds. The agent has read-only patent-search tools returning raw patent data and must do all FTO reasoning itself. Teaching snapshot — not legal advice.

Why this is fundable

Scarce expert who grades this
Patent attorney / IP analyst with life-sciences prosecution experience (~$400–800/hr loaded)
What one decision is worth
A missed blocking claim can sink a program late or force a 9-figure license; a wrong 'blocked' call kills a viable asset. FTO opinions gate whole development and BD decisions.
Real-world data sources
Google Patents / EspaceNet / USPTO & WIPO families (claims, legal status, priority/expiry). Curated CN/US/WO snapshot here; designed to map onto live patent-family pulls.

Agent tools

list_corpussearch_patentsget_patentget_claims

Expert grading rubric

Dimension5 (excellent)1 (poor)
Corpus search completenessSystematically searches the corpus (orients via list_corpus, then queries by target, modality, keyword, and across CN/US/WO) and surfaces the full set of relevant families for the proposed product — including the same-target naked-antibody composition family that can read on an ADC built from it.Runs one narrow query or reasons from memory; misses blocking families or whole jurisdictions; treats the corpus as smaller than it is.
Claim-overlap analysisReads actual claim text and distinguishes composition-of-matter (molecule/ADC/sequence) from method-of-treatment, and genus from species — e.g. recognises an auristatin/MMAE genus ADC claim reads on a specific MMAE construct, or that a naked-antibody composition claim covers the antibody used in an ADC.Conflates a narrow method claim with a composition claim, ignores genus/species scope, or asserts overlap/non-overlap without reading the claim text.
Legal-status & expiry handlingCorrectly treats expired families as non-blocking, separates granted from pending (pending claims are not yet enforceable but are a WATCH), and uses priority/expiry dates to reason about when a blocker falls away.Calls an expired patent blocking, treats a pending application as a hard block (or ignores it entirely), or never checks legal status / expiry dates.
FTO verdict & design-around qualityRenders a CLEAR/WATCH/BLOCKED verdict that follows from the claims found, and proposes credible, specific design-arounds (e.g. switch from a claimed MMAE/auristatin payload to an unclaimed payload class, change linker chemistry, or wait out an expiring family) tied to the actual blocking claim scope.Verdict contradicts the evidence, is hedged into uselessness, or design-arounds are generic ('use a different antibody') and not tied to specific blocking claims.
Evidence faithfulnessEvery cited family, claim number, assignee, status, and date traces to tool output; claim-scope statements quote or paraphrase the real claim text; no invented patents.Fabricates publication numbers, claims, assignees, or dates, or contradicts the returned corpus data.

Example queries

Trajectories

model panel (compare side by side)

ModelProviderTierJudge 1–5Verdict
Claude Opus 4.8anthropicfrontier4.6strong
Claude Haiku 4.5anthropicsmall3.8acceptable
GPT-4o miniopenaismall2.0flawed
GPT (frontier)openaifrontier1.4unusable

batch 20260606_020818

QueryModelTool callsTimeStatus
Assess freedom-to-operate for a proposed anti-CLDN18.2 antibody-drug conjugate (MMAE aurclaude-opus-4-8850.7sok
We want to develop a naked anti-CLDN18.2 monoclonal antibody (zolbetuximab-class, bindinclaude-opus-4-8632.6sok
Evaluate freedom-to-operate for a HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate carrying an exatclaude-opus-4-81252.6sok
Assess FTO for a proposed DLL3 x CD3 T-cell-engaging bispecific for small cell lung cancclaude-opus-4-8744.1sok