Resources
Essential frameworks, guides, and tools for navigating innovation,
creativity, and ownership in the AI era.
Patent Representation Index
A composite score ranking 91 tech companies on how well they translate women's technical work into patent inventorship. Built from BigQuery patent data and government EEO-1 workforce filings. Five sub-indices, weighted, normalized 0-100.
See the RankingsWhy Most Software Patents Start Too Late
The entire patent industry assumes someone already knows they have an invention. For software engineers, that assumption is almost always wrong. The gap is not the filing process. It is the discovery step.
Read the GuideThe Patent Gender Gap by the Numbers
Women make up 29% of the STEM workforce but hold 12.8% of U.S. patents. The gap isn't talent. A 9-page research series covering the prosecution funnel, the PNAS 2026 "breakthrough penalty" study, AI patenting, international data, and evidence-based interventions.
Read the SeriesWhat Is Patent Mining?
Patent mining extracts hidden value from data sources, engineering teams, and codebases. Three definitions, the crypto mining parallel, and how AI changes the discovery step.
Read the GuideThe PPA as a Stock Option on Your IP
A provisional patent application costs $65-$325 and buys you 12 months. Think of it like a stock option: a small premium for the right to decide later whether to invest fully.
Read the GuideSoftware Patents After Alice
Alice changed the rules, not the game. 58% of software patents still get approved. A guide to what survives, prosecution strategies, and what developers should document.
Read the GuideSection 101 Declaration Strategy (SMEDs)
The USPTO's April 30, 2026 memo clarifies and reinforces the Subject Matter Eligibility Declaration as a voluntary §101 evidence tool. Practitioner adoption is uneven and the §132(a) new-matter rule constrains what a SMED can do. The evidentiary opportunity lives at the drafting stage, not the prosecution stage.
Read the GuideAI Patent Discovery and Privilege
GAI use in patent drafting may not enjoy attorney-client privilege (Baker Donelson, May 2026). The risk is real for generic LLM use; structured-disclosure tools with audit trails are categorically different in discovery.
Read the GuideCo-Founder IP: Who Owns What
Two founders build a product. Who owns the patents? Without an assignment agreement, each co-inventor can independently license the invention to your competitor. Without permission. Without sharing a dollar.
Read the GuideIP Ownership Clauses for Remote Contractors
A remote contractor can write your next core patent before lunch. Without the right cross-border assignment language, they may still own it.
Read the GuideAI Inventorship and Human Conception
Built it with Cursor, Copilot, or Claude Code? Under Thaler v. Vidal and the USPTO's November 2025 revised guidance, only humans can be inventors, even when AI tools materially contribute. A doctrinal walk-through plus a conception note template and practitioner intake checklist.
Read the GuideTight Ownership for AI Code Teams
When AI generates most of the code, who conceived the invention? A practical protocol for capturing inventorship evidence before the filing scramble.
Read the ProtocolAI Patent Risk: 2026 Firm Consensus
Baker Donelson, Hogan Lovells, Kirkland, Alston & Bird, and Arnold & Porter have all published 2026 alerts on AI-drafted patent risk. The consensus on discovery, privilege, work product, and validity, and what it means for prosecution practice.
Read the RoundupWhy Local-First Matters for Patent Discovery
Before you file a patent, your invention is a trade secret. Any AI tool that processes unfiled inventions in the cloud introduces risk across three legal frameworks. Local-first scanning eliminates all three.
Read the GuidePatent Documents and the Cloud
Three legal frameworks govern how pre-filing patent documents can be stored and processed. The risk isn't cloud itself. It's how long your unfiled invention sits on someone else's server.
Read the AnalysisCloud AI Leaks: Trade Secrets vs Patents
Pasting code into a cloud AI can jeopardize both trade secret protection and patent eligibility before you knew there was a decision to make. ~1,500 federal trade secret cases filed in 2025. The fix starts before your code touches the cloud.
Read the AnalysisAI Agents and Your Intellectual Property
99% of dev teams use AI coding tools. 29% are prepared to secure them. When your agent reads your codebase, where does that code go? The answer has legal consequences.
Read the GuideIP Ownership in Local-First Sync Engines
Distributed contributors, open-source CRDTs, and cross-border teams create unique IP ownership risks. Learn how to secure clean patent title before it becomes a deal-breaker.
Read the GuideTesla's .smol Patent: What It Actually Claims
Tesla's WO2024073080 describes a hybrid columnar-row file format for ML training data. This analysis walks in-house counsel through the eligibility, prior art, and disclosure risks.
Read the AnalysisProtecting Creativity in the AI Era
A practical guide for artists, developers, and knowledge workers to safeguard their ideas, innovations, and value in an age where AI can absorb everything you create.
Explore the GuideTechnology Discrimination
The patent system may not discriminate against inventions on paper, yet still discriminate among inventors in practice. Access barriers and eligibility skepticism compound for software builders.
Read the AnalysisPatenting AI Agents for Autonomous Payments
Bank of America grew its AI patent portfolio 94% from 2022 to 2024 while most fintech founders are still asking whether their agentic payment system is patentable. A practical guide to what is, what isn't, and where the legal landmines sit.
Read the GuideInvention Discovery in AI-Augmented Sprints
When sprints compress from weeks to days, documentation shrinks with them. Novel solutions get committed, merged, and forgotten. A practical workflow for AI-augmented dev teams to capture inventive work before competitors file first.
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