August 20, 2025

Article

Why patent attorneys should think beyond ChatGPT

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When Albert Einstein joined the Swiss Patent Office in 1902, patent work was almost entirely manual: attorneys drafted on paper, searched prior art in libraries, and prepared office actions by hand. While the digital tools of the 1990s - databases, Word, and docketing systems -  improved speed and organization, they still didn’t fundamentally alter the substance of patent prosecution work. Now, just forty years later, the profession is facing a second wave of change - this time driven by AI.

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude are widely accessible, and many attorneys with technical backgrounds are naturally experimenting with them. But there are clear limits. Relying solely on general-purpose LLMs risks missing the deeper innovations coming from patent-specific AI tools designed specifically for patent prosecution work. Here are three reasons why.
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