Think for a moment about all the situations where a neutral third party could have benefited you. At work. At home. Even personally when problem solving or making decisions all alone. Now, think about all the situations in our society where a neutral third party could help — especially if that type of viewpoint and input could be received in the moment. 

That’s the goal NeutralAiz Inc is working towards. With such a unique use of AI technology that could have a huge impact on the social space, IP protection was vital. 

An upfront investment in intellectual property

NeutralAiz Inc. founder, Aaron Atin, is a lawyer by trade. He has a background as a fractional general counsel and corporate secretary to multiple public companies. He, himself, had experienced many situations where a neutral third party could help to cut down the drivel and provide a succinct overview at what was being said and what needed to be done. 

“I had this idea, but as a lawyer by trade with absolutely no background in the software development space, I had to lean on my network to connect with someone who could help make this idea reality,” said Atin. 

Once he found people to work with, he knew his first step needed to be some kind of IP protection. 

“Because of my background, I knew I needed to take steps quickly,” he said. “I personally prepared our non-disclosure agreements on day one and I was sure to include strong IP protections in them.”

With the goal of monetization, however, and knowing what potential investors would be looking for, Atin knew that these agreements wouldn’t be enough. 

“We wanted to get venture capital and start funding so that we could expand. I knew that one of the main things a VC is going to look at is if we have a patent application and what type of IP we had available to us,” said Atin. “We needed to see what we could do with this without breaching someone else’s patents, and to secure some of our own.”

Learning about ElevateIP through a newsletter

Because he is a lawyer by trade, Atin subscribed to a variety of industry newsletters. It was in one of these editions that he saw an article written by Joanna Ma in Bereskin & Parr about the ElevateIP program. 

“This article talked about funding for startups to help them develop their IP strategy and to get funding for the patent process,” said Atin. He then reached out to Ma who gave him some more information about the program. He applied right away. It was with financial support from ElevateIP that NeutralAiz Inc was able to retain Bereskin & Parr to help them dive deeper into the world of IP protection.

“When we started working with ElevateIP and Bereskin & Parr, we first needed to do a lot of exploring of possibilities. We had been a bit scattered in how we were going about the software before,” he explained. “With their help, we did the landscape search to get that foundation. I had taken IP law maybe a decade ago, so there was a lot of learning that came in this process — both for us as a company and me personally. It was an incredible experience.”

The importance of documentation

One of the surprising findings that Atin and his team discovered through the ElevateIP process was how important documentation is for those early decisions for your company.

“While developing our tool, we used a lot of open source software. What we learned was that many of these open source licenses can have unique clauses that you may not expect them to have,” he explained. “Certain clauses can actually state that if you monetize a product made with their software, that they are immediately granted a license to whatever you build. It wasn’t a surprise per say, but it really impacted how we chose our open source licenses we used and how we went about building the software. This was one of the first things our lawyers looked at with us.

It was through this learning exercise with ElevateIP and going through the questioning with patent lawyers that Atin realized the value of early documentation. 

“I’d recommend to any new companies out there getting started to keep track and provide detailed descriptions of problems they encounter when developing software or any kind of IP, and then the solutions to solve those problems,” he said. “I’ve learned that that is what the patent process really looks like. It can be key to what differentiates you from competitors, and even helps direct lawyers into what they need to be looking at for you.”

ElevateIP: A resource to help close the gap

As a small startup, Atin knew early on that they were in a tough spot: They didn’t have the funding to invest in IP but he knew just how important it was for their future. It’s the role that ElevateIP plays in closing that gap that makes this program so valuable. 

“I’d recommend ElevateIP to any company that needs help with IP,” he said. “It was and continues to be an incredibly positive experience for us. Our foundation is laid and I’m excited for the future of NeutralAiz Inc.”