When I signed up to view some of the challenges, I was surprised to find in the fine print that the “Solvers” who proposed solutions also had to certify that the “Seekers” (the people with the money who need answers) would be legally unconstrained from implementing the proposed solution.

I read this as a requirement that Solvers also do fairly complete freedom-to-operate analyses on their proposed solutions. If I’m reading the fine print correctly it would seem to me that almost none of the cash rewards are high enough to be worth the trouble: FTO analysis can be very expensive.

I also wonder if in some jurisdictions it is required to have some kind of license to practice law to accept compensation for a freedom-to-operate analysis — I would love to find out more if anyone knows.