Patent applications remain stuck in an outdated process, drafted manually word by word like in the days of fax machines. While other legal sectors have embraced modern technology, patent registration hasn’t caught up – until now. DeepIP is changing this landscape with AI.
Based in NYC and Paris, DeepIP leverages AI to help IP attorneys create higher-quality patents in half the time. The company just secured $15M in Series A funding led by AI fund Resonance, with participation from Headline (Mistral AI), Serena Capital (Dataiku), and Balderton Capital.
The funding will support DeepIP’s expansion in the U.S. and Europe as it develops its productivity assistant into a more sophisticated AI solution.
The patent-filing registration process hasn’t changed since the 1990s
Patents are fundamental to capitalism, protecting innovations and enabling their commercial development. For example, mRNA vaccine patents licensed to BioNTech and Moderna were crucial for developing the COVID-19 vaccine.
The current patent process is expensive ($20K-$100K lifetime costs), slow (2-4 years for approval), and error-prone. The complex terminology and outdated processes create significant challenges, with over 1 million applications pending at the USPTO.
Patent practitioners face increasing pressure to work faster — application time has been cut in half since the 1990s while maintaining accuracy in an increasingly complex field. Meanwhile, global patent applications grow at 4.4% annually, reaching 3.5 million worldwide.
How DeepIP builds a trustworthy AI for patent practitioners
Founded in 2024 by François-Xavier Leduc and Edouard d’Archimbaud, former leaders of Kili Technology, DeepIP combines elite AI talent with experienced patent practitioners. The co-founders have spent the past five years creating AI solutions for research-driven institutions like Airbus, IBM, and SAP. They have mastered transforming data into reliable AI, meeting and even exceeding the stringent security standards of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Their solution merges third-party and proprietary models while utilising unique data access to reduce AI hallucinations. This product synergises third-party, proprietary, and unique data access to enhance performance and significantly decrease the occurrence of AI hallucinations. It assists patent practitioners in everyday activities, including patent preparation, drafting, and prosecution.
The system has already assisted in drafting 8,500 patent applications, reducing drafting time by 50% while improving quality and defensibility. The AI assistant, embedded in Microsoft Word, offers seamless workflow integration with features like document summarisation, jargon simplification, and pattern recognition from past applications.
DeepIP’s innovation: AI patent assistant
DeepIP is pioneering the first next-generation AI Patent Assistant, designed to free IP practitioners from tedious tasks and help them deliver greater value to clients. The AI assistant integrates directly into Microsoft Word, where patent attorneys spend most of their time creating documents.
“There have never been as many innovations that could be protected and create more value for the entire economy. Yet, how we manage the patents that make this possible hasn’t evolved fast enough. We built DeepIP through continuous feedback loops with the 50 largest U.S. IP law firms, refining our AI to deliver with precision and legal rigor. By combining cutting-edge AI with deep legal expertise, we’re pioneering a new era where patent professionals collaborate seamlessly with AI to work faster, smarter, and strategically. We augment, not replace,” says CEO François-Xavier Leduc. “The product-market fit was almost immediate,” he continues. “As one customer put it: ‘I already have five colleagues who told me, If you don’t buy this for the firm, I will go buy it myself.’”
The platform’s key features include summarising large documents, simplifying complex jargon, highlighting novel aspects of innovations, and identifying omissions in patent drafts. The AI assistant can also suggest alternative patent claim structures, enhancing quality and defensibility.
Another distinctive feature is the AI’s ability to analyse past patent applications, learning and replicating the writing patterns of individual practitioners and their clients—crucial for maintaining specific tones and wording requirements.
Unlike standalone AI tools that disrupt existing workflows, DeepIP’s Microsoft Word integration offers seamless functionality within attorneys’ existing processes. The platform maintains strict security standards with its Zero Data Retention policy, which ensures that no user data is stored after the session ends, GDPR compliance, and SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications, ensuring complete data segregation and confidentiality.
Impact and recognition: 7-figure ARR in just 7 months
Leading IP practices across Europe and the US, including Jacobacci & Partners and Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner, have adopted DeepIP’s solution. The platform maintains strict security standards with GDPR compliance and SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications.
In October 2024, DeepIP partnered with Black Hills AI to further enhance IP management processes. The company’s rapid success, reaching a seven-figure ARR in just seven months, demonstrates the significant value it brings to patent practitioners.
“DeepIP is the fastest startup I’ve ever seen reach 7 figures in ARR in 7 months! To me, this is a clear testament to the massive productivity gains DeepIP is bringing to patent practitioners. I’m convinced that DeepIP will become an essential part of every IP law firm’s operations in the years to come. Having partnered with François-Xavier and Edouard on their first company, Kili, I’m thrilled to join them again on this new journey with us” says Maxime Le Dantec from Resonance.
“AI isn’t replacing entire professions; it’s integrating into specific tasks, making knowledge-based work faster and more efficient. DeepIP is the perfect example of this trend: it augments IP practitioners to the point that once they try it, they don’t want to work without it. It’s a B2B product, but IP lawyers derive so much value from it that they’ve told us they would personally buy it if their company didn’t. Patent filing is essential for scientific advancement and DeepIP is building its missing piece,” says Jonathan Userovici, General Partner at Headline
As the patent industry evolves, the USPTO has responded by issuing guidance on AI inventions in July 2024, providing clarity on evaluating AI-related innovation patentability.
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