Patent tools
Patent Fence, Patent Break, and Patent Surveillance — whitespace, in-app FTO, and watch-list alerts.
Three patent surfaces ship under Patent Center: Patent Fence (find
whitespace analogs to file on), Patent Break (in-app freedom-to-
operate scoring), and Patent Surveillance (watch a structure and get
alerted when new filings show up). All three are gated by the
patent_tools feature key.
Patent Fence (whitespace selection)
Patent Fence is the workflow built on top of Patent Landscape. Submit a target molecule, get a table of structurally similar compounds bucketed by SureChEMBL patent density, select the whitespace compounds, and submit them as a single batch library for retrosynthesis. The output is a queue of analogs that nobody has filed on, each with a planned route.
Use Fence when you want to fence around an unclaimed region of chemical space, then immediately scope the synthesis cost.
Patent Break (in-app FTO)
Patent Break runs a freedom-to-operate score on a finished route. For
every step in the route, the platform pulls SureChEMBL matches on the
product structure and flags the step with a risk tier (low, moderate,
high). The route detail page renders the per-step risk badges, and the
patent-risk PDF endpoint at
/api/tasks/{taskId}/routes/{routeIndex}/patent-risk packages a
shareable export.
The companion endpoints (patent-break-pdf, patent-mention-pdf)
generate longer-form documents for circulation with counsel.
Patent Surveillance (watch + alerts)
From any task or any structure you've already searched, click Add to
surveillance. The platform stores the structure in your watch list
at /patent-landscape/surveillance and a daily cron at
/api/cron/patent-surveillance checks SureChEMBL for newly indexed
documents that mention a substructure match. New hits show up in your
surveillance dashboard with a delta-since-last-check badge and trigger
an email digest.
Use Surveillance for ongoing IP awareness on a small set of priority structures (your lead compound, your top three analog families, a competitor's published lead). It is not a substitute for a docketing service on a fixed portfolio of filed applications.
Tier requirements
SureChEMBL caveats
What to read next
- Patent Landscape: the whitespace bucketing that feeds Fence.
- Invention disclosures: once you pick a whitespace target, generate an IDF draft from the same task.
- Library synthesis: the batch surface that whitespace selections feed into.