# NLPatent Rebrands as Clerq, Launches Agentic Patent Platform > Source: > Published: 2026-08-18 13:27:48+00:00 # NLPatent Rebrands as Clerq, Launches Agentic Patent Platform NLPatent rebranded as Clerq on August 18 and launched an agentic AI platform for patent research workflows. The company introduced rapid invention-disclosure triage and full patentability reports with cited references, while BetaKit reported that Clerq is targeting legal teams facing more complex applications and patent backlogs. Clerq's claim that the work can take roughly 10 minutes has not been independently tested. NLPatent rebranded as **Clerq** on August 18 and introduced an agentic AI platform intended to execute patent-research workflows end to end. The Toronto company launched two workflows: rapid triage for high volumes of invention disclosures and a full patentability report that presents feature-level reasoning with cited references. Clerq says the workflows return citation-backed work products for review by the responsible patent professional. Its announcement claims that work traditionally measured in days or weeks can be completed in roughly 10 minutes. Neither the company release nor BetaKit's reporting provides an independent performance evaluation, so that speed remains a vendor claim. ### From patent search to workflow execution Clerq was founded as NLPatent in 2021 by patent lawyer Stephanie Curcio and her co-founders. BetaKit reports that the original product used machine learning to search and analyze patent material from plain-language descriptions. The company says its proprietary language models cover hundreds of millions of patent and non-patent-literature documents. The new platform adds research, document generation, feature-level reasoning, and citations within one workflow. BetaKit describes the announced products as a triage assessment for screening inventions and a patentability report that compares an invention with existing records. Attorney review remains the stated final decision point. Clerq also announced cross-referral integrations with **RPX Corporation** and **Park IP**. The company says the RPX connection links its research engine with the RPX Empower patent-intelligence environment, while the Park IP integration connects research with patent-translation and foreign-filing services. Michael Chernoff joined as director of IP strategy, according to the release. ### The demand Clerq is targeting BetaKit cites World Intellectual Property Organization data showing that more than 56,000 patent families related to generative AI were published in 2024 and 2025, more than during the preceding decade. Curcio told the publication that AI-assisted drafting can also make applications longer and harder to review. The launch is evidence of a legal-tech vendor moving from assisted retrieval toward multi-step workflow automation; it is not evidence that the product matches expert review in production. The useful measures to watch are citation accuracy, prior-art coverage, reproducibility, and how often attorneys must correct the generated reasoning. ## Key Points - 1Clerq launched invention-disclosure triage and patentability-report workflows that combine research, reasoning, and cited output. - 2The company's roughly 10-minute completion claim is not independently benchmarked in the retrieved reporting. - 3The platform keeps patent professionals as the stated decision-makers and adds integrations with RPX and Park IP. ## Scoring Rationale The launch is a relevant vertical-AI product development for teams evaluating agentic legal-research workflows. Its audience is specialized, and the central speed and coverage claims come from the company without an independent product benchmark. ## Sources Primary source and supporting public references used for this report. Practice with real Real Estate data 90 SQL & Python problems · 15 industry datasets 250 free problems · No credit card [See all Real Estate problems](/problems/datasets/real-estate)