How would I know if I infringe someone else’s patent?

One way to know if you might infringe someone else’s patent is through a “Freedom to Operate” search, which is sometimes called a “clearance search” or “right to use search.”

An FTO search is performed for each of your *products* (not your patents) and searches for existing patents that might be used to sue you.

A defensive intellectual property insurance policy will use a freedom to operate search as part of the underwriting. If you have an attorney do a clearance search or freedom to operate search, the insurance underwriters will use that search to help them identify the risk.

Freedom to operate searches are done on each of your products or each product family, and once you have an initial search done, periodic updates to the search should be done whenever you modify or update your product/product family.