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Clearance by Jurisdiction

Freedom to operate is a per-market question. The same product can be blocked in one market and clear in others — a patent granted in the US says nothing about what you can do in Europe or Japan. Evalify reads that difference directly: it computes a separate clearance for each searched market, from the same claim-chart evidence that drives the overall opinion.

This means a localized block reads as what it is — a conditional freedom-to-operate position, not a global "blocked" — with a clear path: commercialize in the markets that are clear, or redesign the blocking feature for the one that isn't.

What the per-jurisdiction read means​

Each searched market gets its own verdict, computed from that market's own patents under the same rules as the overall opinion:

  • Clear — nothing in that market blocks the product, as searched.
  • At risk (conditional) — there is exposure a redesign or licence could address, but no outright block.
  • Blocked — a granted patent in that market reads on a core aspect of the product.

Because each market is assessed from its own charted documents, "clear in Japan" and "blocked in the US" are findings, not two colours on a decorative map. The verdicts obey the same evidence rules you rely on everywhere else in the report:

  • Only granted patents block. A pending application is never a blocker in any market — it can only be flagged for monitoring (see below).
  • Utility models never hard-block. A utility model is a materially weaker, largely unexamined right, so even a literal read against one is treated as at most conditional in that market — never an outright block.
  • The most serious verdict across the market's patents sets that market's read, exactly as it does for the product overall.

"Clear" means searched-to-depth, not a global guarantee​

This is the honest boundary, and the report states it plainly: every foreign clearance is scoped to the markets that were actually searched, and it is described throughout as "as searched." It is not a representation that a product is clear worldwide.

Two things follow from that:

  • A market Evalify searched but found nothing blocking reads as Clear — because it was genuinely searched to depth. Evalify runs a dedicated, per-market search so a market is never called clear merely because its patents happened to rank below others in a combined list. This particularly matters for non-English patent offices (Japan, Korea, China), whose documents are easy to under-retrieve in a single mixed ranking; each is searched on its own so "clear" is earned, not assumed.
  • A market that was not in scope is shown as Not searched — never as clear. Out-of-scope markets are left uncoloured on the map and simply omitted from the clearance; Evalify never asserts clearance for a market it didn't look at.
On patent families

Evalify does not infer per-country coverage from patent-family membership. Instead, for each market it searches for and charts the documents that actually read on the invention in that market, and computes that market's verdict from those documents. Market attribution follows the publication-number country prefix. Europe (EP) is assessed as a single office and expanded to its member states for display.

The clearance map and the "jurisdictions searched" panel​

Two surfaces in the report make the per-market picture legible:

  • Preliminary FTO Clearance by Jurisdiction (map). Each searched market is coloured by its computed verdict — green for clear, amber for at-risk/conditional, red for blocked — while markets outside your scope stay grey (Not searched). A European result colours all EP member states. A legend names each band.
  • Jurisdictions Searched (chips). A compact summary of exactly what was covered — the offices searched, whether utility models were included (for example CN · JP · KR), and coverage notes such as how many claims were machine-translated. Because every verdict rests on the claim text, that translation note is the caveat that matters, and it's shown alongside the map.

The conditional opinion​

When a block is confined to some searched markets but not others, the written FTO opinion frames it as conditional, not global. Instead of "Blocked," you'll read something like:

Conditional — blocked in {market}, but clear in {the others} as searched. Commercialize outside {market}, or redesign the blocking aspect for {market}.

The opinion names the blocked and clear markets explicitly, describes the foreign clearance as "as searched," and gives you the strategic path — market avoidance or a targeted redesign. A block that spans every searched market is still reported as a global "Blocked"; the conditional framing is reserved for a genuinely localized block.

How jurisdiction affects the score​

The FTO score reflects the per-market picture. A literal block in one market, while the product is clear in others, is not treated the same as a block everywhere:

  • A localized block softens the score in proportion to how much of your searched scope is clear — the more markets that clear, the higher the score climbs.
  • The score is pulled back toward the caution band if any relevant patent is a pending application under monitoring, reflecting that foreign clearance today could change if a pending right grants.
  • Critically, the score never reaches full green while any searched market is blocked. A localized block lands in the range between caution and the top of the light-green band — better than a global block, but never a clean bill of health.

A block that spans every searched market keeps the conservative, deep-red score of an unqualified block.

Pending applications: monitored, never blocking​

Pending applications don't have enforceable claims yet, so they never block any market. Where a pending application is relevant, Evalify flags it for monitoring rather than charting it as a blocker, and — if you place the matter under monitoring — tells you if it later grants with claims that read on your product. Their presence tempers an otherwise-clear foreign score without ever creating a false block.

Choosing your markets​

You set the territorial scope when you configure the analysis — either an explicit list of offices or a preset (for example the major five: US, EP, JP, CN, KR). Set it to the matter: the markets where the product will be made, used, or sold. Note that PCT / WO is not one of the default freedom-to-operate offices — if you need it assessed, select it explicitly.

Reliance

Per-jurisdiction clearance is a preliminary, as-searched assessment to focus your analysis — not a country-by-country opinion of counsel. Verified filing status, per-country legal status, and the doctrine of equivalents remain matters for your professional judgment. See the FAQs.

See also: Reading Your Report for the rest of the report's components, and Running an Analysis for setting territorial scope.