Key players include Tradespace (San Francisco-based, managing 440K+ patents for 80+ organizations, including Fortune 500 tech giants and 75% of top US research universities), Above the Law (survey partner and publisher), lead investor AVP (with General Partner Manish Agarwal), and prior investors Eniac Ventures, Amplo VC, and Scrum Ventures. This ties to Tradespace's $15M Series A funding on January 26, 2026 (led by AVP), following its November 2025 acquisition of Paragon Patents to advance AI-driven patent drafting and agentic workflows.[1][2][7]
Historically, in-house IP teams faced trade-offs between filing fewer patents to cut costs or exhausting budgets on outside counsel; Tradespace integrates AI into R&D for 50% legal spend reduction, 40% more invention disclosures, and filing in days.[1][2] The survey builds on a September 2025 Above the Law-Tradespace poll gauging IP management trends.[5]
Newsworthy now amid Tradespace's funding momentum and AI hype in legal tech, the findings underscore a strategic shift for enterprises—internalizing IP via AI to align with business priorities—amid growing patent workloads and tech investments expected in 3-5 years.[7][2][1]