No one needs to reinvent the wheel and you shouldn’t waste valuable time, money and resources designing a “new” medical device that already exists. Before committing too much in terms of time and development budget dollars to a new medical device project within your company, you should consider first obtaining a market clearance search from an experienced medical device IP lawyer to help you decide if the project is a good investment.
What Are The Benefits of Getting A Market Clearance Search?
While you might think that your company has come up with a completely innovative idea for a new medical device design, you need to remember that it is possible for two entities to develop the same innovative concept independently. It is also possible that two entities to independently develop separate products that are very similar to one another in terms of their scope. This is all too common an occurrence in crowded technology areas within the medical device field, especially when multiple companies and research entities are trying to engineer a solution to a common medical problem. A market clearance search can help clue you in as to whether going forward with a particular medical device project is worthwhile.
The purpose of a market clearance search is to analyze the relevant market space that you intend to launch your product in with the goal of identifying key players in the industry and evaluating the intellectual property rights of those key players. If your competitors have significant intellectual property protections in place that are similar to your company’s innovative new product, you could be barred from entering this particular market because your business activities could constitute infringement.
A market clearance search can let you know if there are any other products in existence that are similar to the device you plan on developing and marketing. If other similar devices already exist, you may decide to pull the plug on a particular project, and redirect funds to a different project that has more marketing potential and less business risk.
Getting A Market Clearance Search Makes Good Business Sense
Product development and securing intellectual property rights for a new medical device can be a costly endeavour, costing upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars before you are ready to go to market. Before heading down this expensive path, you could obtain a market clearance search and a legal opinion, on whether your planned medical device would be a good investment. The cost of a market clearance search is small in comparison to making the costly mistake of pursuing a medical device design that has little market potential and high business risk.
Running a successful medical device company requires making carefully considered business decisions. You should be using every tool that is available to you to ensure that you make well-informed decisions.
The Rapacke Law Group understands that your business is important to you, and we want to help you make the best decisions you possibly can for your medical device company. Contact us today to schedule a free initial consultation with one of our IP attorneys.
