Thomson Reuters, Sterne Kessler Launch Patent Claim AI for Section 101
Thomson Reuters and Sterne Kessler launched an AI Patent Claim Eligibility Analyzer on June 18, 2024.
Why it matters: Patent counsel now get automated, practitioner-informed Section 101 analysis—shortening a notoriously laborious workstream. Faster, clearer patent eligibility guidance supports litigation risk assessment, opinion preparation, and client counseling.
- Patent Claim Eligibility Analyzer launched June 18, 2024 as a joint project.
- Delivers automated, AI-powered Section 101 patent eligibility analysis within the CoCounsel Legal platform.
- Combines Thomson Reuters’ content with Sterne Kessler’s deep patent litigation expertise to highlight relevant cases and generate tailored explanations.
- Developed with direct input from active patent lawyers; builds on Sterne Kessler’s prior AI tools like Patent Assist AI.
Thomson Reuters and Sterne Kessler unveiled the Patent Claim Eligibility Analyzer on June 18, 2024. This AI-powered tool addresses a persistent legal bottleneck: assessing whether a patent claim qualifies as eligible subject matter under Section 101 of the U.S. Patent Act, a frequent flashpoint in patent litigation and invalidation battles.
- The Analyzer runs on Thomson Reuters’ CoCounsel Legal, integrating large-scale legal content with Sterne Kessler’s practical litigation insights. It reviews patent claims against relevant case law, then highlights the key precedents and explains how they relate to the specific patent—enabling faster, more defensible analysis.
- As Daniel S. Block, Electronics Practice Director at Sterne Kessler, put it: the Analyzer can “deliver patent eligibility analysis in minutes, not days—dramatically enhancing the value we bring to our clients.”
- Unlike generic AI legal tools, this product was developed with practicing patent litigators: “It was built with practitioners at the center of every decision,” said Steve Assie of Thomson Reuters.
- The partnership follows Sterne Kessler’s earlier internal rollout of Patent Assist AI for patent drafting. Analyst and customer reviews for the Analyzer are not yet public.
Section 101 governs which types of inventions are patentable—a critical threshold that often determines the viability of patent litigation. Accurate, efficient initial analysis is essential for both offensive and defensive patent strategies.
By the numbers:
- June 18, 2024 — Launch date for the Patent Claim Eligibility Analyzer
- Minutes vs. days — Estimated time saved in patent eligibility analysis, per Sterne Kessler
Yes, but: Independent evaluations or case studies on the tool’s real-world performance have not yet been published.
What's next: Early adopter feedback and potential integration with other Thomson Reuters legal AI tools are expected in the coming months.