A patent gives you the right to prevent others from practicing your invention. It does not, however, give you the right to practice the invention yourself. For that, you’ll need freedom to operate, which means that your product does not infringe a patent belonging to somebody else.
Founders often confuse prior art with freedom to operate. When analyzing a patent application as prior art, the examiner will evaluate everything disclosed in the entire patent, including its specification,
drawings, and claims. For freedom to operate, the claims are the only part of the patent that matters.
You can’t be found liable for patent infringement merely because part of your product is described in the specification of another patent.
