AI and Trademark Law: What We’re Learning—and What Clients Should Know

AI is reshaping trademark practice faster than any tool in the past 30 years. Tasks that once took days—like preliminary clearance searches or portfolio analysis—now start in minutes. But while AI has become a powerful accelerator, it hasn’t replaced the need for experienced legal judgment.

How We’re Using AI Internally

• Faster clearance screening: AI tools flag phonetic, visual, and conceptual conflicts across multiple jurisdictions, letting us begin the strategic analysis sooner.
• Portfolio management: Automated monitoring identifies unused registrations, upcoming renewals, and maintenance gaps—helping clients spend smarter.
• Litigation support: AI analyzes TTAB trends, attorney patterns, and case outcomes, giving us better insight when preparing responses or briefs.
• Drafting assistance: AI can generate first drafts of routine documents, letting us focus our time on the nuanced arguments and strategy.

Where We Still Exercise Caution

AI can be wrong—sometimes confidently wrong. We’ve seen fabricated citations, inverted legal standards, and misapplied factors. That’s why our internal protocol is strict:

• Verify every citation.
• Cross-check all legal standards.
• Trace factual claims back to original sources.
• Require human review of any AI-assisted work.

What Clients Should Consider

Clients often ask how they should structure their own AI usage. Our guidance mirrors our internal practice:

• Use AI to accelerate routine tasks, but never to replace legal judgment.
• Establish a verification requirement—trust but always verify.
• Know where AI adds value (pattern recognition, summarization) and where it falls short (novel reasoning or legal interpretation).
• Train teams on prompt quality—garbage in, garbage out still applies.

AI is here to stay, and it’s already enhancing the speed and quality of trademark work. The key isn’t choosing between humans or AI—it’s using both responsibly. The firms and companies that master that balance will lead the next decade of brand protection.