Edge launches AI agent for trademark work, targeting underserved $23 billion market
Edge, an AI patent software company, released Certus, an AI agent designed to automate trademark clearance searches and application filing. The product completes tasks in minutes that typically take hours, targeting a market where 11.6 million trademark applications are filed annually.
Trademark law remains one of the largest segments of intellectual property work yet has received minimal technological innovation. Attorneys still rely on manual processes, expensive external service providers, and costly search engines. In many cases, these services cost more than the legal work itself, making trademark practice unprofitable for firms.
Certus operates differently from traditional trademark search tools. Rather than functioning as a specialized search engine, it works as an AI agent that completes full workflows. For clearance searching, it creates search strategies, ranks results by relevance, gathers supporting evidence, and drafts reports using attorney templates. For application filing, it assembles goods and services descriptions from approved term lists and identifies dates of first use and specimens.
Daniel Rosenberg, a partner at Am Law 100 firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, said he no longer uses competing trademark products after testing Certus. "I can turn matters around in under an hour instead of three days, sometimes a matter of minutes, with better accuracy than competing products," Rosenberg said.
Certus marks the first application of AI agents to trademark work. Earlier AI legal products focused on patents or general legal tasks, but required attorneys to manage each step manually. Edge's patent product, now called Ingenia, is used by enterprises and law firms including Nestlé, McCarter & English LLP, and K&L Gates LLP.
Evan Zimmerman, CEO of Edge, said the company built Certus because trademark attorneys have been overlooked by legal tech. "We're giving them an AI agent that's more than a chatbot-it helps every step of the way," Zimmerman said.
Edge is backed by Y Combinator and based in San Francisco. Certus is available on a limited basis to select customers. Learn more at withedge.com.
For legal professionals interested in how AI is reshaping practice areas, explore AI for Legal or the AI Learning Path for Paralegals.
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