mar:val checks, feature by feature, who could block your product, and suggests design-arounds. It also states what the screen does not cover.
Name the product and the markets it enters. The screen covers exactly that: the jurisdictions it searched and what you will do there. It is never assumed to be worldwide.
Product
Optical sensor
Example · Companies › Freedom to operate › Scope
mar:val splits the product into features, each with a key. Every claim the screen finds is read against those keys, one limitation at a time.
FeatureClaim limitations on it
Example · Companies › Freedom to operate › Features
Path 1HighDesign around it
Each finding comes with a claim element chart: every limitation of the claim, the features it rests on and whether your product practises it. Here all four are practised, and (b), the sensor held in the carrier, decides it.
Claim element chartKaltex Systems · EP3149872B1 · Claim 1
| Limitation | Features | Practised |
|---|---|---|
| (a)Carrier with a receptacle | C | Yes |
| (b)Sensor unit held in the receptacleDecisive element | B · C | Yes |
| (c)Control module with an evaluation unit | D | Yes |
| (d)Evaluation inside the control module | D | Yes |
Example · Companies › Freedom to operate › Claim element chart
Every high and medium finding comes with at least one design-around. It states the engineering and commercial cost, a requirement you can check, when to review it again and what new exposure it may create.
Design-aroundKaltex Systems · EP3149872B1
CSingle-piece carrier with a receptacleNow
C′Two-part carrier, sensor clamped between the halvesChanged
Example · Companies › Freedom to operate › Design-around
Path 2MediumMonitor
Then the finding says so. Four of the five classifications do not mean "blocked". Your product may practise (b) of Orbis Medical's claim 7, and (c) is unknown. Both count as unresolved risk.
ClassificationOrbis Medical · US10842401B2 · Claim 7
Example · Companies › Freedom to operate › Classification
Each finding carries its earliest relevant expiry, read off a legal status verified against a register, with source and date. Where the status was never checked, there is no date to read.
Example · Companies › Freedom to operate › Expiries
The screen ends with who can block you, in its own order: high, medium, not rated, low. An open question sits above a cleared one. A ranked list of next actions follows, and legal review is one of them.
Who can block youStatus · Partial screen
| Risk | Owner | High | Medium | Earliest expiry | Jurisdictions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | Kaltex Systems | 2 | 0 | 2034 | EP · US |
| Medium | Orbis Medical | 0 | 1 | 2031 | US |
| Not rated | Hanseat Instruments | 0 | 0 | — | DE |
| Low | Vantis Labs | 0 | 0 | 2029 | EP |
Ordered high, medium, not rated, low. "Not rated" sits above "low" on purpose.
What is missing
Next actions
Screening only, not a legal opinion. Have counsel review anything you act on.
Example · Companies › Freedom to operate › Who can block you
No, and the product says so on every finding: screening only, no legal opinion. It shows who could block you, how badly, until when, and where the search stops. "Legal review" is one of the actions it proposes itself.
Down to the individual limitation: its text, the product features it rests on, whether your product practises it, and which limitation decided the classification. Without that chain the finding would be worthless in a data room.
Then it sits in the list as not rated, above the low risks, with "legal status not verified" as the reason. The open question stays visible.
Someone deciding a launch or a transaction. It reads without patent-attorney training and keeps every legal qualifier. It answers who blocks, how badly and until when, and whether licensing or acquiring costs less than engineering around.
Demo request
In the demo we show you a real report from your technology field. 30 minutes, no obligation.
Questions first? contact@marlean.com