About
Law alone is slow.Technology alone gets it wrong.Together, it’s better.
We’re a patent analytics firm, founded by two patent practitioners who build and run their own machine learning. Every answer we give is checked by people who know the law and tested against millions of patents.
Our approach
Every answer needs both sides
- 1
Claim × data
Every claim we read is tested against the whole corpus, and every data point is read the way a patent lawyer reads a claim.
- 2
Judgment × scale
Practitioners decide what matters. Models make sure nothing is missed across millions of patents.
- 3
Question × answer
We set out how we’ll answer your question, in the time you have, to the accuracy you need.
- 4
Client × outcome
Success is what you do next, whether you buy, assert, prune or license. A report on a shelf doesn’t count.
The team
An engineer-lawyer and a patent strategist
David Andrews
An engineer and a lawyer, at the same time
A decade writing code at Microsoft, on the Windows kernel and Age of Empires. Then law school (summa cum laude), a judicial clerkship, high-stakes patent litigation, and years of patent practice at Microsoft. He built ClaimScore to read claims the way a patent lawyer does.
David on LinkedInJack Bradley
A patent strategist who runs the models
Decades of patent practice, including years at Microsoft, building portfolios, working deals, and reading claims faster than anyone we know. Jack turned out to be better at using David’s code than David was, because he knew exactly what the models needed to learn.
Jack on LinkedIn
How the pairing came about
We knew each other’s work at Microsoft without working directly together. We found common cause at Aon IP Solutions, working side by side, and then bubbled together through the pandemic.
That’s when the pairing clicked. David trained the models on Jack’s work product. Together we could answer very specific questions across millions of patents, quickly.
History
From one client’s IPO to a firm of our own
- 2016
Our first anchor client
Uber signs on with Legal Analytics, David’s company, to prepare for its IPO: the client the business was built on.
- 2016–24
Through the Aon years
Aon acquires Legal Analytics, and the work continues and deepens: prosecution analytics, threat analytics, and close work with Uber and other clients.
- 2024
They came with us
Aon leaves IP, and David and Jack start Novelty Hill IP. Uber’s IP team replies the same day, and clients who couldn’t work with Aon sign up straight away.
- 2025
Rebuilt from the ground up
The fresh start is a chance to rebuild the technology from scratch, on a new data supplier, new infrastructure and modern AI.
- 2026
New questions, new tools
New clients bring new kinds of work, from claim charts across whole portfolios to a summary of every US patent, and our first tools clients can use themselves.
The books we built on
Probability, bias, noise, clear communication, and how to treat people
These six books are the basis of our business and our friendship
- Thinking in BetsAnnie Duke
- Thinking, Fast and SlowDaniel Kahneman
- NoiseKahneman, Sibony and Sunstein
- SuperforecastingTetlock and Gardner
- Storytelling with DataCole Nussbaumer Knaflic
- The Four AgreementsDon Miguel Ruiz
Who we are
Colleagues, partners, friends
From a standing start, we built a real business, technology we’re proud of, and jobs for people we’ve known and trusted for years. Along the way there was life and family too. Jack stood as best man at David’s wedding.
Trust lets two smart people disagree hard and still land on the right answer. When the model says one thing and experience says another, we keep pushing until both agree.
Need a patent answer you can act on today?
Bring us the details, and we’ll help you tackle it
Or email us at inquiries@noveltyhillip.com