NLPatent rebrands as Clerq, launches agentic patent research workflows

Toronto patent research startup NLPatent rebranded as Clerq today and launched its first agentic workflows. The software runs a full patentability analysis in about 10 minutes. The company says every conclusion arrives with citations. That work normally takes days or weeks, and firms usually push it down to a junior associate or out to a search firm. Two workflows are live at launch. A rapid triage assessment screens high volumes of invention disclosures. The second produces a full patentability report with feature-by-feature reasoning and cited references. Clerq says an attorney reviews the reasoning before signing off. “This isn’t a smarter version of the same software-as-a-service model, it’s service as software,” said Stephanie Curcio, chief executive and co-founder. “Work that used to be delegated down or sent out now happens in minutes, under the direction of the professional accountable for it.” The new name refers to a law clerk, who does substantive work under an attorney’s direction. Law firms, corporate IP departments and universities already use the company’s large language models for search and monitoring. Those models predate ChatGPT. Clerq also announced cross-referral integrations with RPX Corp. and Park IP. The RPX deal puts Clerq’s research engine inside RPX Empower, which RPX sells to companies managing large litigation exposure. Park IP, a Welocalize company, gets the same research layer for its patent translation and foreign filing work. RPX Chief IP and SaaS Officer Steve Chiang said patent risk assessment “hinges on the quality of the patent research supporting each determination.” The company has also hired Michael Chernoff as director of IP strategy. He started out as an examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office before going on to run a 30-person patent search practice at the patent and trademark firm Murgitroyd. He also served as a chief patent counsel at a Fortune 500 company and chief intellectual property officer at an investment bank came in between. Invalidity and freedom-to-operate workflows are next on the company’s roadmap. Clerq runs its models in a private cloud and says it does not train on customer data. Curcio and James Stonehill founded the company in 2021. Clerq is venture-backed, having raised $3 million in a round led by Draper Associates and Mighty Capital in November. Curcio told BetaKit at the time that the money would go toward building fully agentic workflows that execute complex patent tasks. Image: NLPatent/Clerq A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE: Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities. 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network Are you an AWS customer? Support SiliconANGLE financially by buying your AWS services from our Marketplace portal page and links: https://siliconangle.com/aws-marketplace/ About SiliconANGLE Media