The digital transformation is increasingly changing how we interact and this does not stop at patent law firms. More and more inventors and decision makers are digital natives and are looking up patent law firms online. And they are not only expecting a good looking and intuitively usable webpage, but they also want some easy to digest and immediate feedback regarding their IP questions. Offering such information is a challenge all companies have, who are advertising for their services online, but for legal services it is particularly complicated. Nevertheless, some legal tech startups are beginning to offer dedicated software solutions for law firms to implement in their webpages, providing immediate benefits to potential clients, which sets them apart from the often undistinguishable law firm competition.

The startup perspective

Put yourself in the shoes of a young and dynamic technology startup. The whole team is striving everyday to create novel and unique, digital and technological solutions and to develop their business models and products. At the same time they are under a lot of time and financial pressure to enter the market and to generate revenue. At this point, no one in the team is motivated to invest valuable resources to think about IP protection.

In this situation creating IP awareness is not enough. Today, tech entrepreneurs and investors know about the importance of IP and understand, that a company should invest in the generation of an IP portfolio. But how would an entrepreneur know, that they made a patentable invention and that they should consult a patent attorney.

This is the time simple to use patent information tools operated by law firms can create a differentiation advantage. Unlike tools for company in-house departments, who are skilled in the use of patent information or work together with external patent searchers, those tools need to be so simple to use, that they can create valuable results for a layman completely without guidance. This can be reached for example by the use of an AI, that can process any plain language questions to identify the relevant patents, that were searched for. Additional value for an entrepreneur can be offered by an AI-based patentability pre-assessment, which can give an estimate of the patentability of the startup’s technical developments and motivate the entrepreneur to get in contact with the patent law firm. Such offerings are increasingly implemented by aspiring and expanding law firms and are poised to change the patent law firm landscape.

The patent law firm perspective

Patent law firms are increasingly struggling in the competitive market with finding the time for acquiring new and retaining existing clients. Often this is only possible after long discussions, in which the patent attorneys have to explain basic patent knowledge over and over again to guide clients in obtaining the optimal patent protection for their business. While a personal connection to the client and a discussion of each individual case is vital for the profession, digital tools can also significantly reduce the work load for patent attorneys, if their prospective clients use the offered AI tools to create standardized reports about the invention, they wish to protect.

Currently, there is still a certain scepticism about the increasing use of AI in the patent profession. For example there are worries about the disclosure of information, when using AI tools in webpages. Nevertheless, there are also solutions available, which can be run in a private local server, so that no data leakage can occur by the use of the AI tool.

The IP business talk with Adam Novak

If you want to learn more about the digital transformation of patent law firms and the newest developments in legal tech, watch our upcoming IP business talk with Adam Novak. Adam Novak is founder of InCatalyst, an AI-enabled platform for patent searching and patentability pre-assessment. He is an expert for legal tech to automate and digitalize processes in law firms, optimizing client interactions.

In the talk we will address the following questions:

  1. Startups and individual inventors are increasingly aware of the value of patents, but there is still a high barrier to invest time and money and to get in contact with a patent attorney. How can easily accessible patent information and patentability pre-assessment tools help to motivate startups and inventors to seek patent protection?
  2. Patent attorneys often need to invest a lot of time to explain their clients the benefits and options for patent protection. How can such tools reduce the time investment for explanations for patent attorneys and help them focus on IP strategy consulting?
  3. Law firms are increasingly feeling the need to have a strong digital presence to attract new clients. How can digital tools on law firms’ webpages help to acquire potential clients?
  4. Many patent attorneys fear that disclosing too much information online can destroy the potential novelty of an invention. How can patent attorneys safely use new digital tools that always process more and more information?