Emerging Technology Assessment: Ankar AI Patent Drafting Platform

A First Look at Promising AI-Powered IP Technology

Full transparency: I have an affiliate relationship with Ankar, but this assessment reflects my genuine professional evaluation after extensive hands-on testing. I believe in sharing both the exciting potential and current development areas to help the patent community understand what could be a transformative tool.

I had early access to Ankar’s patent drafting module and spent time working with its impressive figure generation capabilities. Here, I share insights on what could become a disruptive tool for patent drafting workflows, providing honest feedback to help shape its development. My evaluation focuses on the platform’s potential for further innovation, its unique features already in place, and its performance in the demanding scenarios typical of modern IP practice.

Executive Summary

Ankar’s drafting module is just one part of an ambitious full-stack solution for the entire IP lifecycle. The team has a strong sense of what IP professionals need, continuing to develop modules for tasks from office action responses to infringement detection and FTO assessments. Ankar distinguishes itself as an ambitious entrant to the AI-powered drafting space: it demonstrates genuine innovation in key areas, but also reveals challenges common to sophisticated legal technology. My assessment finds a platform with exceptional potential, requiring further development for consistent, professional-grade results.

I’ve been working closely with the Ankar team to explore their suite and understand how these modules fit into a comprehensive IP workflow. Their co-founder, Wiem Gharbi, and VP of Product Development, Lukas Bogenrieder, have been incredibly responsive throughout the process, and it’s clear they’re dedicated to building a top-choice IP management solution. The following comments reflect my first in-depth look at its patent drafting interface.

Current Assessment: Promising foundation requiring targeted development

For users seeking an efficient way to draft patent applications—whether by uploading multiple types of disclosures, claims, or figures—Ankar provides a serviceable interface that gets the core job done. It reliably handles basic drafting tasks. However, some system quirks and inconsistencies keep it from being the first-choice tool for professionals needing predictability and tight workflow control. Despite these growing pains, its unique features and evolving architecture make it a compelling option for forward-looking teams.

Ankar’s core strength lies in its ambition and its range, but at present, the drafting module can feel a bit unwieldy. The AI-generated outputs, while generally on point, vary too much in depth and thoroughness. This means results can range from highly detailed and useful to frustratingly sparse, limiting the confidence a practitioner can place in the system. This variability isn’t unique to Ankar, but for a specialized IP tool, greater reliability is needed. That said, oversight will remain important with all AI tools, especially when quality margins swing so widely.

Recommendation: Suitable for forward-thinking firms willing to engage with and help mature emerging technology, particularly those seeking a multipurpose AI IP assistant.

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What Sets Ankar Apart

Sophisticated Figure Generation Capabilities

Ankar’s standout feature is its sophisticated figure generation and management system. The platform enables professional sketch enhancement from rough drawings, automates figure numbering and cross-referencing, generates chemical structures, and produces descriptive language for figures on demand. For high-volume drafting practices, this alone could save hours per application and significantly reduce the back-and-forth with technical illustrators.

The figure generation engine produced high-quality line drawings from my sketches.

Strategic Intelligence Integration

The system does an effective job of surfacing information to help patent practitioners anticipate prosecution and litigation issues. Its automated prior art search not only finds references but ranks and contextualizes them, providing clear differentiation suggestions—keeping practitioners informed without leaving the platform. The integrated glossary is another highlight: it speeds the review of applications for related concepts and terminology, enabling easy adjustments without manual text search. Edits made via the chatbot were mainly inserted into the correct sections of the draft, though occasional misplacements required a page or session refresh to correct.

Collaborative Workflow Features

Ankar's enterprise software roots are evident in its collaborative tools. It's easy to save prompts and drafts in shared workspaces, supporting multi-attorney teamwork and making both drafting and review processes more efficient. The platform’s prompt-sharing, document distribution, and section-by-section acceptance controls streamline the collaborative workflow, making iterative drafting practical across large teams.

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Areas Requiring Development

Document Integration Challenges

Despite its innovation, Ankar’s system exhibits several familiar challenges for new legal tech. Claims and prior art must be copied in, not uploaded directly, and prior art used for 102/103 rejections must be imported rather than searched and selected within the tool. These document integration frictions add manual steps to what could otherwise be a seamless process.

User Experience Needs Refinement

The user interface, while clean and functional, would benefit from more robust customization—such as adjustable pane widths and targeted zoom. Reviewing chatbot outputs sometimes required multiple zoom-outs to view the content. As a workaround, I found myself copying results into external files for easier editing and reference.

AI Performance Optimization

The chatbot itself was inconsistent in responding to prompts; open-ended queries such as “help” resulted in multiple, undirected outputs, instead of triggering a clarifying question or quick-start guidance.

Arguably minor misplacements of draft text between document sections undermine drafting confidence but are being iterated upon.

Prompt response quality—particularly when requesting detailed figure descriptions—was inconsistent, with the system either generating too much or too little content. Broader prompts sometimes resulted in the system writing descriptions for all available figures, regardless of the specific request.

The prompt library is limited, and in-app help or documentation is largely absent. While Ankar’s developers are responsive and offer live troubleshooting and training, the user experience would be significantly improved with integrated how-to guides and workflow documentation.

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Technical Compliance Considerations & Support

Manual oversight remains necessary to ensure output complies with USPTO guidelines, particularly concerning claim presentation and document structure. Generated drafts sometimes used a [Claim x] numbering format, which, under 37 CRF 1.75(f), is not USPTO-compliant and would need to be manually corrected before filing. While not a prohibitive problem, this is the sort of basic regulatory detail that could waste a quarter of an hour of client time.

These issues appear solvable with targeted development and ongoing practitioner feedback. Furthermore, the pace at which the Ankar team rolls out fixes and enhancements indicates a clear commitment to progress.

Competitive Positioning and Future Potential

Ankar stands out in a crowded AI IP tooling space by combining patent drafting with a full-stack, lifecycle-oriented vision and extraordinary figure automation. With substantial funding and backing, the platform is positioned to improve rapidly and broaden adoption. I expect advances in figure handling, input integration, compliance automation, and collaborative features as AI and user feedback continue to shape development.

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Recommendation & Conclusion

I recommend Ankar for established practices looking to pilot new drafting methods, tech-forward firms aiming for workflow efficiency, and solo/small firms prioritizing figure generation and first-draft preparation. The platform exhibits the hallmarks of genuine innovation—especially in visual content and collaboration—while acknowledging that practitioner oversight is required to ensure compliance with USPTO guidelines.

The patent profession benefits from supporting innovation while maintaining our commitment to quality and compliance. Ankar AI appears well-positioned to evolve rapidly based on practitioner feedback. Early engagement is beneficial for both users seeking competitive advantages and for the platform's development toward comprehensive IP lifecycle management.

We plan to update this assessment as Ankar AI continues developing its platform capabilities. We may broaden our user recommendations as the team addresses formatting compliance and workflow integration enhancements.