At Evolve we build our own AI agents for pharmaceutical IP. Franklin is the agent we use for publication review and invention spotting. Franklin reads a document before it is published and identifies all of the previously undisclosed inventions, confidential information and know-how that may be patentable or impact future IP.
Why publication review is a time sink for pharma patent attorneys
As former in-house patent attorneys at big pharma, we have done a great deal of publication screening, and we know how much valuable patent attorney time it can swallow.
The difficulty is usually volume combined with the critical importance of not missing a key disclosure. For a late-stage or on-market product, or for a technology platform, abstracts, papers, posters, protocols and presentations arrive constantly, and they rarely arrive evenly. They bunch around conference submission deadlines and clinical readouts, so a quarter’s worth of review can land in a fortnight.
The likelihood of key information slipping through is also high. A single accidental disclosure of a new indication, unpublished clinical dose or clinical trial results can invalidate highly valuable future patent filings (Evolve Insights). These disclosures may also be buried in the back-up slides, supplementary material or the depths of the quarterly financial report (Evolve Insights).
We built Franklin to both reduce the time devoted to PSO whilst simultaneously increasing the likelihood that problematic disclosures will be caught before they are published.
Four things make publication screening slow
Keeping track of what the company has already disclosed. Working out whether the document in front of you adds anything to that. Getting through the number of documents before the submission deadline. The importance of not missing the crucial disclosure buried in the supplementary material.
What Franklin does: Publication review and invention spotting
Franklin is an AI agent for assisting attorneys with review of Invention Disclosure Forms (IDFs) and in the Publication Sign Off (PSO) process. Franklin is able to review any form of disclosure, simple or complex, brief or long and detailed, raw data or final journal article submission.
A disclosure, in any form
A manuscript, abstract, poster, slide deck, press release, protocol, clinical study report, presentation video, press releases, financial reports, invention disclosure form or a completed PSO submission. Franklin reads it end to end and pulls out the separate inventions.
Context review
Franklin identifies pharma and biotech inventions, then searches its context for previous disclosures and confidential documents. Franklin then identifies all of the previously undisclosed inventions, confidential information and know-how that may be patentable or impact future IP.
Franklin will first search the project context (every previous journal article, clinical trial publication, press release, abstract and corporate deck disclosing information about the product). On request, Franklin can also run an extensive search of public databases of patent documents, clinical trial registrations, and company websites to find relevant third party disclosures, including foreign language searches such as the Chinese clinical trial registry (Evolve Insights).
How Franklin reviews a publication, step by step
In: a new disclosure
A manuscript, abstract, poster, slide deck, press release, protocol, clinical study report or PSO. Or one line of text describing the invention.
1. Publication review and invention spotting
Franklin reads the document and lists every invention in it, numbered and grouped by category. The inventions are also categorised as supported or unsupported, depending on whether there is any data. The user then selects the inventions to interrogate further.
Output: Invention summary
An inventions table. Each invention with its reference, category, description and the supporting data. Source information is provided directly for attorney validation.
2. Source search, then internet search
Franklin searches every file in the source folder: publications, internal documents, posters and abstracts. The internet search of patent, literature and clinical trial databases follows only on the user’s explicit instruction.
Output: Disclosure analysis
A disclosure table. Each invention marked undisclosed, partially disclosed or disclosed, with a confidence level, the evidence behind it and the suggested next step.
Next: Claim drafting or redaction of confidential information
The attorney makes the final decision on whether to pursue a patent draft or remove confidential information from the disclosure before it publishes.
Does Franklin replace attorney review?
No. Franklin is not built to.
Franklin works through the job with you rather than handing back a finished answer, proposing the inventions found and confidential information so that the patent attorney can decide which to pursue or remove to protect future filings. The calls that matter stay with the attorney: whether a partial disclosure is enabling, whether an earlier paper really describes the same thing, whether a filing is worth making, and how quickly it has to happen.
How Franklin handles your files and client confidentiality
Our AI runs inside the files and software we and our clients already use, rather than behind a separate piece of software that everything has to be copied into and out of (Evolve Insights).
Franklin is built directly on the latest foundational models rather than on a third-party product, so we can move as the models move (Evolve Insights). Any Evolve attorney can call Franklin by name when working on a client project.
Franklin sits on the same footing as the rest of our AI: no storing of users’ data, no training on inputs and enterprise-grade security (Evolve Insights).
Evolve’s AI agents for pharmaceutical IP
Franklin is one of a suite of AI agents we have built for pharmaceutical IP, each covering a different part of the work:
| Agent | Main use | What it does |
| 🪶 Darwin | Drafting | Pharma and biotech claims and specifications, built from the source data and the examples. |
| 🌱 Mendel | Amendments | Jurisdiction-ready claim sets for the EP, the US and elsewhere, with the basis for each amendment set out. |
| 🌍 Popper | Prosecution | Global prosecution and office action responses, argued on the data and on local practice. |
| 🧐 Gilbert | Quality assurance | Independent checking of claims, specifications, sequences and prosecution against the IP strategy. |
| 🧠 Albert | Validity | Basis, novelty, inventive step, support, priority, claim construction and the ranking of experimental data. |
| 🚦 Cassandra | Due diligence | Contract and licence review for pharma and biotech transactions. |
| 💡 Franklin | Disclosures | Publication review, invention spotting and competitive intelligence landscaping. |
| 🦉 Athena | Strategy | The IP strategy on the record, kept current for a case or a whole family. |
| 🌈 Ammonite | Portfolio visualisation | Our own charts for competitive landscaping and for showing an exclusivity position. |
Publication review at the speed your science moves
As your fractional head of IP, or alongside your existing in-house team, we use Franklin so that patentable confidential information is not accidentally disclosed and urgent patent filings can be made in time.
Why is it called Franklin?
Rosalind Franklin (1920 to 1958) took the X-ray diffraction images that the structure of DNA was worked out from.
The Experts
Rose Hughes, MA (Cantab), PhD, EPA
Rose is a biotech and pharmaceutical patent specialist with over a decade of experience in intellectual property. At Evolve, Rose leverages our unique fractional in-house model to provide clients with deep patent law expertise combined with the strategic commercial oversight of senior in-house counsel. Rose’s clients include late-stage cell therapy and clinical stage biotech companies.
With a PhD in Immunology from UCL, Rose applies her technical background to complex innovations in biologics, cell and gene therapies, and the rapidly emerging field of AI-assisted drug development. Previously, Rose held the role of Director, Patents at AstraZeneca, where she was responsible for global IP portfolios and IP strategy at every stage of the pharmaceutical pipeline, from platform development and on-market commercialization to SPCs and patent term extensions.
A recognized thought leader in the field, Rose has been a regular contributor to IPKat since 2018, offering practical insights into European patent law developments. She is Editor of the CIPA Guide to the Patents Act (10th Edition), a frequent speaker on the epi podcast, a guest lecturer for the Brunel University IP law Postgrad Certificate, and a contributing author to published books A User’s Guide to Intellectual Property in Life Sciences (2021) and Developments and Directions in Intellectual Property Law (2023).
Steven Gurney, EPA, CPA, MIPLaw
Steven is focused on maximising the potential of his pharmaceutical and life science clients. As the founder of Evolve Intellectual Property in 2021, he brings a passion for developing robust IP strategies and providing expert counsel.
A highly skilled life science patent attorney with over 20 years of combined in-house and private practice experience, Steven is qualified as a European, UK, and Australian patent attorney. His recognition in legal directories includes LEGAL 500 (2024, 2025), IP STARS (2024, 2025), and IAM Patent 1000 (2024).
Steven’s expertise spans pharmaceuticals, drug development and IP, drafting, portfolio management and prosecution, lifecycle management, licensing (in- and out-), due diligence and FTO, contentious work (including litigation and opposition), and regulatory exclusivities like PTE/SPC.
