Nobody used the free patent check
I built a free AI patent check for inventors. Nobody used it. They wanted to talk to a human before they shared a single detail.
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Tuesday, October 13th, 6:45 p.m. I was at WeWork, on a call with the first inventor.
He is an AI founder in New York. He found Tao IP, the patent law firm I am building, through a ChatGPT recommendation, and booked a 15 minute call. We talked for half an hour.
He did not use our free patent check. He did not log in to the portal. He told me what his invention was about when he booked, and on the call he asked me one thing.
“Mine is specific. Can I talk to the attorney?”
He wanted to know who the attorney is. If they would get on a call with him. If they could discuss the scope of his invention, and where the coverage should go, so it covers different use cases. He was worried AI could not do that. He wanted an attorney with expertise in his domain.
I told him yes, you can definitely talk to the attorney. You start with Mike, our lead attorney. Mike has people on his team with exactly that domain expertise, and he can point you to the right one if he does not take it himself.
After the call I sent him the link. He said he would check. Then, for four days, nothing.
The next day, Wednesday, October 14th, 2:34 p.m., an inquiry came in from the second inventor, through the short form on our website. He found us through an AI assistant. He wanted a prior art search, and he sent a clear summary of what he built.
I replied with two related patents I found, and three ways to start: a call with me, our portal, or email.
He wrote back: “Thanks for the two references, we read both. I’m getting counsel first. I’ll hold off on sharing technical detail for now.”
He did not want a call. He did not want the portal. He wanted his own lawyer before he told us anything more.
That makes sense. I told him there is no need to share technical detail until he is comfortable. We can sign an NDA before he shares anything. We can work with him directly.
Before this week, I believed the free check was the most useful thing on our site. There is no tool like it that you can use without paying or talking to a human. An inventor describes the problem they solve and what is new, without sharing too much technical detail, and gets a score. Then they know what to act on. It is super fast.
Nobody used it. Until today, nobody used the portal either. From all the inbound we got, people sent an inquiry or booked a call. That was very surprising to me.
We have an NDA. Our servers are secure, only the people who need access have it, and we use the information for nothing except the filing. None of that matters before the first conversation. People do not want to put even a bit of their invention into software. They want to trust someone before they disclose anything.
The same week, on Thursday night, Maya told me on a call that she runs about 10 calls a day, back to back. She is building an AI agent for go to market teams. Thomas runs Lantern, a YC F26 company building an AI agent for hiring with taste. He posted his calendar on LinkedIn: 43 sales calls in one week, the whole screen filled with 30 minute meetings.
So I removed the free check from the Tao IP website.
Now there are two ways to start. The first: get started in the portal, with the NDA and your company info. The second: book a call. The calendar comes first. You pick a time, then you fill in the details.
Today, four days after our call, the first inventor signed in. He created his account, signed the NDA, and spent a couple of hours on his disclosure. Six attachments, about 80% complete. It went to Mike.
If you have a patent need, check us out: taoip.ai