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 A single accidental disclosure of a new indication, unpublished clinical dose or clinical trial results can invalidate highly valuable future patent filings (Evolve Guides). These disclosures may also be buried in the back-up slides, supplementary material or the depths of the quarterly financial report (Evolve Guides). The question of what has already been made available to the public, and what has not, is the same one that sits behind freedom to operate and patentability (Evolve Guides).
We built Franklin to both reduce the time devoted to publication sign-off (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, 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 (Evolve Guides) such as the Chinese clinical trial registry (Pharma IP Toolkit).
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 F1, F2, F3 and grouped by category: doses and regimens, formulations, routes of administration, patient subgroups, indications, compounds, modalities, sequences, treatment and safety effects, biomarkers and combinations. The inventions are also categorised as supported or unsupported, depending on whether there is any data. The attorney 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 attorney’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. Every prior disclosure found is recorded with its file name or URL, date, author, document type and a direct quote, so the attorney can check it at source.
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. Where a filing is needed quickly, our drafting agent Darwin prepares the first claim set to the attorney’s instructions.
Franklin for competitive intelligence
The same reading that finds the inventions in your own draft publication finds them in a competitor’s filings and papers. Asked for a competitive intelligence landscape, Franklin runs the founding sweep of the field, builds the workbook and the report, and then hands back a monitor that re-runs weekly and reports only what has changed. The attorney reads the changes, not the whole landscape again. Where a competitor’s patent needs a closer look, Albert takes over the validity analysis.
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 (Evolve Insights), rather than behind a separate piece of software that everything has to be copied into and out of.
Franklin is built directly on the latest foundational models (Evolve Insights) rather than on a third-party product, so we can move as the models move. 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 Guides). Because Franklin reads documents from many sources, we also apply the safeguards described in our guide on prompt injection (Evolve Guides): instructions found inside a document are treated as content to be reported, never as commands to be followed.
How Franklin is built
Every Evolve agent is built from the same four parts. The case context: the client’s files, the prosecution history, the related family members and the instructions, connected from the case project folder. The legal context: the statute and case law of the jurisdiction, the tests the Boards and the courts actually apply, and our reading of where that is heading, kept current as decisions are issued. The instructions: the rules the agent follows, written by our own attorneys, which is where our expertise lives. And the workflow: the steps the agent takes with the attorney, interactive at every one, so that the attorney can challenge a finding and have it re-run.
Any of our agents can be called by name by any Evolve attorney or implementor, in the Claude Cowork desktop app or from inside Word, with a plain instruction such as “Run Franklin on this file”. The agents are connected to the relevant case folders and legal resources and can call on each other, and on our coding scripts, as the job needs. We hold our AI to five tests: it adds tangible value and solves a problem we actually have, it runs on the latest foundational models, it works within the files and software we already use (Word, Excel and SharePoint), it carries our own expertise rather than someone else’s, and it is adaptable, transparent and usable by everyone in the firm. Our Evolve AI page sets out the thinking behind this.
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:
- Popper: Prosecution. Translates and summarises the office action and sets up the groundwork for our response.
- Albert: Validity and opposition. Novelty, inventive step, support, added matter, priority and data strength, laid out for us to review. Albert Construe adds claim interpretation.
- Darwin: Drafting. Claim sets, amendments, specification sections and ST.26 sequence listings, prepared to our instructions.
- Mendel: Amendments. Claim amendments and basis tables for EP, US and other jurisdictions.
- Gilbert: Quality. A second read of specifications, sequences, compounds and responses, with each issue graded.
- Cassandra: Due diligence. Gathers and organises the evidence on coverage, validity, ownership and contract terms.
- Ammonite Chart: Patent estate and loss-of-exclusivity charts that show how long the protection runs.
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. Franklin, the agent, does the same kind of job: it produces the clear picture of what a document discloses, from which the attorney works out what to do next.
FAQs
What kinds of document can Franklin review?
Any disclosure in any form: a manuscript, abstract, poster, slide deck, press release, clinical trial protocol, clinical study report, presentation video, financial report, invention disclosure form or a completed PSO submission. Franklin reads it end to end, including the supplementary material and the back-up slides.
How does Franklin know what has already been disclosed?
Franklin first searches the project context: every previous journal article, clinical trial publication, press release, abstract and corporate deck about the product that we hold on file. On the attorney’s instruction it then searches public patent, literature and clinical trial databases, including non-English registries, for third-party disclosures.
Does Franklin decide whether something is patentable?
No. Franklin lists the inventions it finds, marks each as supported or unsupported by data, and marks each as undisclosed, partially disclosed or disclosed with the evidence behind that call. Whether a partial disclosure is enabling, whether a filing is worth making and how urgently, are decisions our attorneys make.
How quickly can a publication be turned round?
Quickly enough to keep up with conference deadlines and clinical readouts. Franklin does the reading and the cross-checking, so our attorneys spend their time on the inventions that matter rather than on the whole document. Where an urgent filing is needed, the inventions table is the starting point for the claims.
Is our confidential information safe?
Yes. Franklin runs on foundational models from Google and Anthropic under enterprise terms, with no storing of users’ data, no training on inputs and no third-party software layer between your documents and the model. Documents stay in the files and systems we and our clients already use.
Working with Evolve
If you would like to hear more about how we use Franklin and our other proprietary AI tools, or how Evolve can help you with your IP, please contact one of our attorneys. You can also read the original launch article for Franklin (Evolve Insights).