Lightbringer: They're Revolutionizing the Patent Process

Dominic Davies , a patent attorney with a software engineering background, became an inventor when he envisioned automating the patent process. As the head of an IP (intellectual property law) firm, he sought to minimize the time spent on patent process administration, allowing him to focus on strategic work and client care. And he found a way.

The patent filing process is notoriously lengthy, expensive, and complex, typically taking between 1-3 months. It's a task handled by patent attorneys with specialized education and experience. Drafting patent applications is an age-old profession, akin to a craft, and it's a time-consuming process for the inventor.

All the information about the innovation that exists in an inventor’s head has to be transferred to another person, the patent attorney. It involves analysis and a lot of writing to create the patent. The documentation describes exactly what the patent should protect," explains Markus Andreasson, CTO at Lightbringer since March this year.

Helping Patent Attorneys Focus on the Right Things

The current patent protection process is caught up in manual and administrative tasks that require significant effort from multiple parties.

Dominic started thinking about how he could make the firm’s work easier, more efficient, and faster – all the while maintaining the high standards and quality of the patents as if they were prepared manually," Markus says. To figure out how to automate parts of the process, Dominic began structuring his ideas using a mind map.

He then started developing a prototype for a software solution:

Dominic has always solved his administrative issues by writing software scripts. He worked hard on building a prototype and realized it could do a lot of the job preparing patents as he had a lot of administration from the process."

When ChatGPT Came into the Picture

Dominic had created his prototype before ChatGPT took the world by storm. At this point, Dominic and his colleagues did much of the analysis and writing while preparing patents.

Then the Large Language Model ‘GPT-3.5’ was launched. This was a turning point. It made Dominic both scared and thrilled:

The major positive ‘aha moment’ was when he realized that he could integrate OpenAI’s GPT into his software. The GPT can handle huge amounts of text and knows most of what there is to know about patents. But he also got frightened as he understood his profession and many others would never be the same again."

The new software, with GPT, would be able to cover the whole process of writing a patent.

He panicked a bit when he understood that the patents would eventually write themselves with his software and GPT combined," says Markus. There were a few sleepless nights as he realized that he and his colleagues might soon be out of business.

A Idea too Good to Let Go

But then he saw the revolutionary opportunity for what it was. A new business was in the making:

The idea was to automate and take care of the workflow of handling the whole patent application process; from invention preparation, through patent drafting, filing, and prosecution to grant. The solution would help many small companies take care of patents."

Testing the Prototype

Having previously worked with Ola Wassvik, former CTO at FlatFrog and responsible for their patent portfolio, Dominic asked Ola to try out his prototype.

This was the first real-life test. It worked!" says Ola. Ola and Dominic knew that they had to form a company.

This is when Markus, also a former colleague from FlatFrog, got involved. Ola and Dominic asked Markus to join them over lunch.

Markus has worked with software development for over 25 years and is only interested in ideas that make a big difference. When he heard Ola and Dominic talk about it being possible to process patents ten times faster, they said the magic words.

I grasped that this was something meaningful. Who does not want to do their work ten times faster or more? Dominic’s software caught my attention as I understood that it would really make a difference to the patent process. It made me want to join."

Just like Dominic, Markus had been flabbergasted when he discovered ChatGPT with the rest of the world:

I have never seen such a huge change in my professional life as when ChatGPT came. The key is that it can reason and constantly learn and evolve. The whole language model for patents exists within ChatGPT. It has read everything there is to know about it."

From Prototype to Product

Markus creates products out of software prototypes and makes sure they work the way they are intended. His role is to make the Lightbringer platform reliable, scalable, secure, and work in the Cloud.

Our process must be extremely reliable as it will handle our clients’ most inner secrets."

Today, it takes no more than 1-4 days to file a patent with Lightbringer’s software. It can handle almost any patent and is completely safe. Worth noting is that none of the patent information is used by OpenAI to train GPT.

Lightbringer’s secret sauce: how to use the large language models in the right way to optimize the patent procedure.

Our focus is to get top-quality patents. Dominic has the skill to know what that is. He verifies and makes sure the patent is prepared the way it should be. When it leaves ‘our hands’, it is just as it would be in any other IP firm. We are in the IP business! Our mission is to protect innovations. We just use AI to do it."

There is a human review of the generated patent applications, and it has to be verified before it is submitted.

In the future, however, it will be fully automated. The patent attorney will still be needed, though. Somebody will assess the invention, use the software, and be responsible for the outcome."

One of the greatest benefits is that more innovations can be protected.

IP professionals and patent attorneys can focus on strategy and client relations. Innovators can focus on inventing," says Markus. Thanks to our software everyone will be able to do what they do best. Companies will be able to file more inventions. Hence, the world will see more of them.

The inventors will get more freedom and save costs:

Some of the knowledge about patents will be moved to the inventors. AI software help them see what innovations they can file."

What happens now?

We target small firms, SMEs without patent departments, IP firms, and large tech companies with patent attorneys."

Starting in the Nordic countries, Markus and the team see the entire world as their oyster. New customers join by the day as Lightbringer grows organically thanks to word of mouth.

We are focusing on marketing and sales. And we keep developing. The world runs fast, and so do we."

Lightbringer recently became SOC2 certified and will be targeting ISO 27,001 certification in the future.

Get in touch to learn more

lightbringer.com

Lightbringer (LinkedIn)