AI is changing how pharma and biotech companies do research and protect their IP. Used carelessly, it can also put confidential inventions, legal privilege and patent quality at risk. At Evolve, we build and use our own AI tools, and we help clients put the policies and practices in place to use AI safely and well.
Confidentiality and novelty
Anything made available to the public before filing can be cited against an invention. What scientists type into AI tools, and the searches those tools run in the background through web search and other connected services, may leave your control (Evolve Insights) (Evolve Insights). We review the AI tools your teams use, and their terms, so that confidential inventions stay confidential.
Legal privilege
In United States v Heppner, documents a defendant prepared with a publicly available AI tool were found not to be privileged (Evolve Insights). We advise on how to use AI for legal and IP work without putting privilege at risk.
Shadow use and AI policies
Banning AI rarely stops people using it, and tends to push them towards unapproved tools (Evolve Insights). We help you write practical AI policies for scientists, legal and IP teams, covering which tools can be used, for what, and with which information.
Accuracy and expert oversight
Language models can produce text that looks right but is invented, including facts and citations (Evolve Insights). The EPO has also found that a language model’s output is not reliable evidence of how a skilled person would read a technical term (Evolve Insights). Experts need to stay in charge of the work, with the right tool chosen for each job.
AI-assisted inventions
Only people can be named as inventors, but the line between the inventors of an AI system and the inventors of its output is not always clear (Evolve Insights). We help you keep records and agreements that make inventorship and ownership clear.
Choosing AI tools for IP
Many legal AI products add cost and restrictions on top of the same underlying models (Evolve Insights). We share what we have learnt from building our own tools to help you decide what to buy, what to build and how to use it.
Fractional IP counsel
Our fractional IP counsel model places a named senior patent attorney inside your team as your head of IP, setting and maintaining your AI policies alongside your wider IP strategy.
Why fractional IP counsel for AI guidance? AI policies only work if they fit how your scientists, lawyers and IP team really operate. Our patent directors have worked inside pharma and biotech companies, and we build and use our own AI tools every day, so we bring both the real-world industry experience that you only get working in-house and hands-on knowledge of the technology. A traditional IP firm rarely has either, and an independent consultant cannot offer the team and secure systems behind our advice. We keep your policies current as the tools and the law change, with a global strategic approach.
Contact us today to discuss how to use AI safely in your research and IP work.
Evolve AI
Security and professional standards
Our use of AI sits inside the same professional rules as everything else we do.
We are a regulated practice, bound by duties of confidentiality, competence and care, and those duties do not stop at the AI. In practice that means:
- Enterprise-grade security
- No AI model training on client data
- No retention of your data
- Confidentiality safeguards throughout
- A qualified attorney reviews every output
Accountability
You get the speed of AI with the accountability your investors and partners expect from a regulated firm of patent attorneys.
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