How much does a freedom-to-operate analysis cost?

Hi Connor
A freedom to operate (FTO) search involves determining whether your making, using or selling or innovation will infringe the IP rights of any third party in the specific territories where you will do business. Usually this involves a search of public patent databases and design registration databases. While you do not "have to" engage a patent attorney to do this, it is highly recommended because FTO searching is quite a skill and you have the liability insurance of your patent attorney to fall back on if they get it wrong - whereas if you get it wrong ...
The cost of the service will vary significantly depending on the complexity and scope of your innovation (eg if executing your innovation spans several converging technology areas), and the number of geographical areas you need to cover. Some will get away with under Euro 5000, while others will eat up 10K to 20K to do it properly. I guess to some extent it also depends on the amount of investment you may need to sink into the development prior to hitting market - the bigger the investment the more certain you want to be that you can continue to operate. If its cheap to get to market, you might "try it on" and deal with any objections as they crop up. Of course, that is quite an inherently risky approach, but one some are willing to take.
Innovation Liberation Front is based out of New Zealand, but we help clients around the world with issues like this, and others on the path to freeing their ideas from whatever it is holding them back from the market.

Good luck!
Simon