Popper is Evolve’s proprietary AI agent for global patent prosecution, built by our own pharma patent attorneys to navigate the complex intersection of life sciences, global patent law and commercial strategy. We have built Popper to follow the science, know the law and implement the strategy.
The legal tech landscape is rapidly advancing, with new AI capabilities emerging all the time. At Evolve, we have developed our own proprietary AI tools and agents, adapted to the unique requirements of pharmaceutical IP. By integrating AI throughout our business, we offer senior-level, flexible and cost-effective support for biotech and pharma companies. Popper is the agent we use for global patent prosecution. It translates and summarises the office action, lays the cited art and the data against the claims, and sets up the groundwork for our response. The analysis and the arguments are ours.
How Popper follows the science
Life science patent work must be focused on the data. We believe this is one of the reasons why off-the-shelf tools are often not fit for purpose when it comes to pharma and biotech patent prosecution. As life sciences patent attorneys with strong scientific backgrounds and industry experience, we made sure that Popper focuses on the data and the science underpinning an invention. Popper can read figures, understand data and process complex experimental reports. Popper is taught that understanding data is paramount to generating effective analyses and recommendations. For a practical walk-through of where that data sits in a patent, see our guide on how to read a biotech patent (Evolve Guides).
Popper knows the law
A successful IP strategy requires a global outlook, taking account of the different patent laws and commercial realities in different markets. We have therefore given Popper a knowledge bank of expertise built and curated by our own expert attorneys and case law experts. Popper uses this resource to understand the complex interactions between science and patent law which are central to pharmaceutical patent prosecution. This means, for example, understanding the evidence thresholds for supporting clinical-use inventions (Evolve Guides), the functional and sequence-based definitions used for antibodies and other biologics (Evolve Guides), and the importance of comparative data.
Popper’s knowledge bank also explicitly encodes the nuances of different jurisdictions, local case law, and the strategies required to argue successfully before different patent offices. It is kept current as the law moves, for example as the Boards of Appeal apply G 1/24 and G 1/25 on claim interpretation and description amendments (Evolve Insights).
Popper implements strategy
Pharma patent prosecution often involves complex patent families spanning multiple jurisdictions. It was important for us that Popper takes into account the global IP strategy and prosecution history to maintain consistency in argument where possible. Popper works from the file as a whole, so an argument made in one jurisdiction is not quietly contradicted in another. Read more about our patent prosecution and IP strategy services.
How Popper works, step by step
Popper runs in two steps, with the attorney leading at both. The input is the office action and the documents it cites, the application as filed, the claims on file, the prosecution history and the client’s instructions, together with our existing response templates. The output is the response: the rebuttal on each objection, the amended claims in the office’s own format, the basis for every amendment, and the election on any restriction requirement.
In: the office action
The office action in any language, the documents it cites, the application as filed, the claims on file, the prosecution history and the instructions.
Step 1: Summary and translation
A high-level summary of the office action, translated where needed, for reporting to the client and for the attorney to triage. Sequences and compounds in the cited documents are extracted at the same time.
Step 2: Rebuttal and amendment strategy
An integrative, interactive and attorney-led process. Popper proposes the rebuttal on each objection, following the project strategy and the cross-jurisdictional prosecution history, focused on the data and using the case law of the jurisdiction (e.g. US, EP, JP, CN). The attorney challenges, redirects and re-runs until the response is right.
Amendments: Mendel
Where claims are amended, our amendment agent Mendel prepares them as tracked changes or in US amendment format, with a basis check and an amendment summary, and with an eye on unnecessary claim fees and formalities objections.
Quality check: Gilbert
Before anything is filed, our quality agent Gilbert reads the finalised response against the office action and the prosecution history: the formalities, each amendment and its basis, the rebuttal on each objection, the prior art, and whether the instructions were followed. Each issue is graded for the attorney.
Out: the filed response
Every amendment carries its basis and every rebuttal answers the objection actually raised. The attorney leads.
Popper runs in Word on the draft response, where the amendments go in as tracked changes, or in chat with the attorney step by step.
How we use Popper at Evolve
Patent prosecution cannot exist in a vacuum away from the commercial strategy of a pharma or biotech company. At Evolve, our focus is on understanding the business strategy so that the IP strategy can be aligned. This means deciding whether to speed up or slow down prosecution, whether to narrow or broaden claims, and how to align prosecution and filing strategy across multiple technologies and platforms. These decisions require an understanding of the competitive landscape, the business priorities and deep expertise in navigating the challenges of IP strategy in the pharma industry.
We use Popper as a tool to help us efficiently implement the strategy that we develop with our clients. Popper does not replace attorney review. It does the groundwork, so that our attorneys start the analysis on day one with the office action translated, the cited art laid against the claims and the data in front of them. Every argument, every amendment and every recommendation to the client is the attorney’s.
As patent attorneys, we also understand the utmost importance of confidentiality and protecting client data (Evolve Guides). This means no storing of users’ data, no training on inputs and enterprise-grade security. Popper is built directly using foundational LLMs (Evolve Insights) from Google and Anthropic and not with any third-party software providers or SaaS companies. This gives us the flexibility to adapt Popper to changes in the patent law, the science and the capabilities of the underlying LLMs. Our approach to hallucination (Evolve Guides) is the same: Popper works from the documents in front of it, and every citation is checked by the attorney against the source.
How Popper 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 Popper 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.
A complete AI ecosystem for pharma IP
Whilst Popper handles global prosecution, our clients benefit from Evolve’s wider suite of bespoke AI agents. These include:
- 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.
- Franklin: Invention spotting. Finds inventions and disclosure risks in draft publications and competitor filings.
- 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.
The patent profession is entering a new era of technological capability. At Evolve, we offer a strategic fractional partnership that combines bespoke AI for pharmaceutical IP with our own deep industry expertise.
Why “Popper”?
We named Popper after Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902–1994), an Austrian-British philosopher widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophers of science of the 20th century. Popper is best known for his rejection of the classical inductivist approach to the scientific method. Popper proposed that for a theory to be considered scientific, it must be falsifiable. Who better for a patent prosecution agent focused on science-backed rebuttals?
FAQs
Does Popper replace attorney review?
No. Popper prepares the groundwork for an office action response: the translation, the summary, the cited art mapped against the claims and the relevant data pulled from the specification. Our attorneys do the analysis, decide the strategy, write the arguments and sign the response. Nothing goes to a patent office without an attorney having reviewed it.
Which jurisdictions does Popper cover?
Popper is built for global patent families. Its knowledge bank encodes the differences between jurisdictions, including local case law and the arguments that succeed before different patent offices, and it works from the prosecution history of the whole family so that arguments stay consistent from one office to the next.
Is our confidential information safe?
Yes. Popper is built directly on foundational models from Google and Anthropic under enterprise terms, with no storing of users’ data and no training on inputs. There is no third-party software layer that your documents pass through. Our guide on solving the confidentiality problem (Evolve Guides) explains how we approach this.
How does Popper fit with Evolve’s other agents?
Popper handles the prosecution groundwork. Where a response needs a validity analysis, Albert lays out novelty, inventive step, support and added matter. Mendel prepares the claim amendments and basis tables, and Gilbert gives the draft response a second, graded read before the attorney finalises it.
Do we pay extra for Popper?
No. Popper is part of how we work. As a Fractional IP counsel client, all of our AI agents come as standard, and the benefit to you is prosecution that starts earlier and goes further for the same senior attorney time.
Working with Evolve
If you would like to hear more about how we use Popper 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 Popper (Evolve Insights).