NLPatent, a Canadian start-up company in Toronto, has been renamed Clerq and released its first “agent” patent research process on August 18. According to the company, the software could compress patentability analysis, which would normally take days or even weeks, to about 10 minutes.
Two processes are online.
Clerq's on line this time includes two processes. One is a rapid diversion assessment, which is used for high-volume screening of invention disclosures and helps firms and the enterprise ' s intellectual property sector make preliminary judgements. The second is a complete patentability report, which can be analysed on a case-by-case basis according to the characteristics of the patent, with a reference to it.
According to the company, the final conclusions still need to be validated by counsel. In its view, this design is designed to keep the manual turnkey while increasing the processing speed.
Main patent search and analysis speed up
Clerq locates the new product as an upgrade of the patent research process rather than a complete substitute for counsel ' s judgement. The chief executive officer and co-founder of the company, Stephanie Curcio, stated that work often performed by a solicitor or an external searcher could now be done in a shorter period of time before being reviewed by the responsible lawyer.
The company stated that the full analysis would be supported by quotations. This is also one of the points highlighted in its outreach to firms and business law teams.
Announce access to RPX and Park IP
Clerq also announced a cross-induction integration with RPX Corp and Park IP. According to the disclosure, the Clerq research engine will be connected to RPX Empowerer. The product is primarily oriented towards enterprises that need to deal with greater exposure to patent litigation.
Another collaboration is with Park IP under Welocalize for patent translation and overseas applications. Two partnerships show that Clerq is trying to embed its capabilities in the existing intellectual property tool chain, not just as a stand-alone product.
Team expansion and follow-up
The company also announced the appointment of Michael Chernoff as Director of Intellectual Property Strategy. The curriculum vitae includes the examiner of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the head of the patent retrieval operation and the patent legal position of the large enterprise and the investment firm.
In terms of product planning, Clerq indicated that the next step would be to introduce a non-validity analysis and free implementation of an analytical process that would cover the research tasks that enterprises frequently use to assess the risk of abuse before products are listed and to respond to patent disputes.
Financing and data-processing arrangements
Clerq was created in 2021 by Stephanie Curcio and James Stonehill. The company stated that its bottom large language model had been used for patent retrieval and monitoring before ChatGPT.
In the area of financing, Clerq had previously completed $3 million in financing, with Draper Associates and Matty Capital as lead investors. With regard to data processing, the company stated that the model operated in a private cloud environment and did not use customer data for training.