About ObviouslyNot
Every line of code could hold hidden value.
Most developers never realize it, but with modern AI, everyday code can contain innovative, commercially significant ideas. Too often, those ideas slip away unnoticed. Billions in potential intellectual property vanish every year.
Our Mission
We're building tools that help developers and businesses discover, protect, and unlock the hidden value in their code.
Our team has shipped patented systems before. Now we're building tools that help every developer protect their own.
The Problem
- Developers write billions of lines of code annually.
- Few ever explore whether that code may contain strategic concepts worth protecting.
- Enterprises miss chances to protect and monetize inventions.
Our Solution
- Local-first patent scanning: privacy guaranteed, nothing leaves your device.
- AI-assisted drafting: from your existing code to a draft provisional application in minutes, ready for attorney review.
- Future vision: a marketplace where patents and ideas can be shared, licensed, and transacted.
Why Now
- The AI shift means more software engineers are producing distinctive technical work than ever before, much of which may be worth exploring with a patent attorney.
- Existing patent tools are slow, expensive, and inaccessible.
- We're creating the infrastructure to make protecting IP as simple as writing code.
Proven IP Experience
Our team has direct experience contributing to patented systems. We believe that background informs the tools we're building now. Here are two public records that reflect prior work:
Beyond patents, we've scaled a venture-backed SaaS platform to 300+ team members and $50M ARR (acquired 2020). Deep AWS expertise since 2011, building multi-region architecture serving millions of users. We know how to build mission-critical systems at scale.
We speak both languages.
We've built production systems and contributed to patented inventions. That dual perspective, understanding both the engineering and the IP, is what shapes our tools.
And we're not doing this alone. Practicing patent attorneys with experience at Am Law 100 firms and Fortune 500 in-house teams are providing feedback that shapes every feature we build. Their insights on privacy, compliance, and workflow integration are baked into the product, not bolted on after the fact.
Building in Alaska and Seattle
We split our time between Alaska and Seattle. Seattle puts us in the patent ecosystem, close to practitioners, law firms, and the tech companies whose engineers are our users. Alaska keeps us grounded and reminds us that innovation happens everywhere, not just in tech hubs.
We believe the tools to protect your work should be accessible whether you are building from a garage in Anchorage or an office in Pioneer Square. That is what drives how we build.
What we do and don't do
We built ObviouslyNot to help developers discover what they have built. Our scanner surfaces strategic concepts in your code. It scores them for distinctiveness, maps evidence to specific files, and structures the output for a patent conversation.
We do not provide legal advice, determine patentability, or replace patent attorneys. Licensed practitioners make every legal determination. We built the tool. They bring the judgment.
If you'd like to connect with us, Get in Touch →