Timeline
16 weeks
Team
5 engineers + 1 PM
Client Stage
Research Institution
The Problem
Research institutions managed their entire IP lifecycle — from invention disclosure through drafting, approvals, filing, and post-filing tracking — across scattered tools, spreadsheets, and email threads. Researchers, admins, and attorneys had no shared source of truth, and compliance exports were painful.
Our Approach
Stakeholder Mapping (Week 1–3)
Ran sessions with researchers, tech-transfer admins, and external patent attorneys to map the lifecycle end-to-end and identify the friction points each role hit.
Disclosure Drafting AI (Week 4–7)
Built a guided disclosure experience that helps researchers articulate their invention, with AI assistance on technical claims, prior art context, and commercial framing.
Triage & Market Insights (Week 8–11)
Layered in AI evaluation of Technology Readiness Level (TRL), market sizing via external data sources, and prior-art similarity checks.
Attorney Workflows & Compliance (Week 12–16)
Shipped secure document exchange, filing status tracking, audit trails, and single-click compliance exports aligned with institutional reporting requirements.
The Solution
We built a unified AI-powered platform that digitizes every stage of the IP lifecycle. Generative AI assists with invention disclosure drafting, patent triage, and compliance checks. AI-generated insights on Technology Readiness Level, market size, and market value help researchers prioritize what to commercialize. Premium analytics and secure document handling support attorney workflows end-to-end.
Why This Tech Stack
Django gave us rapid iteration on complex workflow state machines and permissions. Azure OpenAI handled both structured outputs (for triage scoring) and free-form drafting assistance in the same system — keeping the architecture simple.
The Outcome
Centralized the entire IP lifecycle for the institution, replacing fragmented workflows with a single collaborative platform. Researchers, admins, and attorneys now work from shared data — and the AI-generated market insights became a key input for commercialization decisions.
Key Metrics
−65%
Invention disclosure time
2.4× capacity
Filings processed per attorney
4 wks → 1 wk
Commercialization decision speed
2 days → 2 hours
Compliance audit prep time