Celebrating Two Decades of Innovation: The Anaqua Experience Conference
IP Portfolio Management | Innovation
July 25, 2024
If you attended The Anaqua Experience Conference at the Renaissance Boston Seaport Hotel in June, you experienced firsthand the evolution of intellectual property (IP) management to meet the diverse needs of IP professionals. The conference featured keynote presentations from influential IP leaders who are shaping the future of IP management. Attendees had the opportunity to explore the new capabilities of the AQX 11 release in deep dive sessions and gain insight into Anaqua's upcoming product roadmap developments.
A Milestone for Anaqua
Anaqua CEO Bob Romeo kicked off the conference by highlighting Anaqua's growth and expansion in IP solutions and services. He noted that this conference marked Anaqua's 20th anniversary and introduced one of its most significant releases to date: the AQX 11 IP management platform.
"The release of AQX 11 is a major milestone for Anaqua,” said Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua. This version significantly boosts IP professionals’ efficiency with integrated AI tools, advanced automation capabilities, and customer-driven enhancements that further strengthen the core of the AQX IP management platform. We are grateful to our global client community for making this release possible and look forward to the next twenty years of collaboration and innovation."
Fig 1. Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua kicks off The Anaqua Experience Conference with a warm welcome and opening remarks.
AI and The Evolving Role of IP Professionals
With an emphasis on AI, automation, attorney productivity tools, and integration applications, the conference showcased the latest advances in delivering IP value to businesses. Presentations from industry leaders, including Microsoft and SAP, illuminated how to effectively leverage AI tools for efficiency gains while maintaining the critical role of IP professionals in portfolio decision-making.
Fig 2. Panel presentation on “Deploying AI in IP Practice” with Raghu Chinagudabha, Sr. Director, Patent Engineering & IP Operations, Microsoft, Sunjay Mohan, Vice President, Global Head of Patents & Trademarks, SAP, Matthew Sked, Senior Legal Advisor and Lead Coordinator of the AI/ET Policy Working Group, USPTO, and moderated by Olga V. Mack, Digital Transformation Executive, Above the Law + ACC Docket Legal Tech & Future of Law columnist.
In his keynote presentation David Kappos, Co-Chair of Cravath's Intellectual Property Practice and Former Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the USPTO spoke about how IP management has changed.
He said, “When I started my career in IP, IP was important, but it was in its own orbit, supporting the business. It wasn't as central to the business. In those days, the buildings and machinery and hard assets were 80% of the business. And the intangibles were 20% of the business. Fast forward to today, and the exact opposite is true. Today, 90% of business assets are intangible. Now more than ever, IP professionals can influence boardroom discussions about what's most important to the business. Boards aren't worried about their physical assets anymore. They're worried about the intangibles of IP. And that's why everyone in this room is getting busier every year.”
Figure 3. David Kappos, Co-Chair of Cravath's Intellectual Property Practice and Former Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the USPTO
AQX Roadmap and Looking Ahead
Vincent Brault, SVP, Product & Innovation delivered an insightful Product Update to give attendees an overview of all the new advances in AQX 11 and a glimpse of the exciting roadmap ahead. He said, “Anaqua’s AQX 11 release, a milestone in our 20-year history, is a client-collaborative effort that introduces new capabilities such as Attorney Workspaces and Domain Name Management. There are significant client-driven enhancements and R&D investments in this release that take the industry-leading AQX platform to the next level.”
The AQX 11 release includes many AI-driven tools that enable IP teams to:
- Minimize tedious data entry: Save hours of operational time each week with AI-driven auto-processing of 850+ documents from some of the world's largest PTOs
- Make faster, more informed IP decisions with a centralized, intuitive attorney work area with instant access to pertinent patent analytics
- Leverage AI for strategic insights: New patent organization and research tools streamline the patent classification and research processes, reducing manual work and enhancing accuracy
He also reiterated how we are accelerating innovation at Anaqua. The release of AQX 11. 1 is just around the corner and the Anaqua team has been working with customers on the roadmap to address the current and unmet needs of IP professionals. This process has involved over 40 one-on-one meetings with members of the Executive Council, numerous Client Working Group meetings, and surveys on where clients want the platform to be in the next five years. The product roadmap development process led to four key concepts:
- Attorney productivity
- Data quality
- Reporting
- AI
Fig. 4 Vincent Brault, SVP, Product & Innovation, delivering the AQX Platform Roadmap presentation.
Two Decades of Partnership and Client Driven Innovation
Over the past twenty years, Anaqua has worked with its client community to develop IP management solutions that help IP professionals create, manage and protect their organization's or client's most valuable assets. Today, Anaqua has more than 800 employees in 14 offices in nine countries dedicated to this mission.
Fig 5. Clients enjoying the dinner party at The AEC.
In close partnership with this growing customer community, Anaqua has worked diligently to develop integrated IP management platforms for both corporate and law firm customers. This commitment to innovation and partnership underscores Anaqua’s mission and its dedication to the IP community.
