— InnovationQ
Establish Prior Art in Minutes. Not Months.
InnovationQ is the publishing and search interface to the world’s leading Prior Art Database from IP.com. Protect your innovations, block competitors, and defend your freedom to operate, for as little as 2% of the cost of a patent filing.
— THE PROBLEM
Not Every Innovation Belongs in a Patent. There’s a Better Way to Protect the Rest.
Patent filings cost tens of thousands of dollars and take years to process. For non-core innovations (process improvements, engineering workarounds, incremental advances) that investment rarely makes sense.
But unprotected innovations are open season for competitors. There is a better option.
— DEFENSIVE PUBLISHING
The Strategic Alternative to a Patent Filing.
Defensive publishing is the deliberate disclosure of an innovation into the public domain. Once published, it becomes prior art, immediately blocking any competitor from patenting the same concept, anywhere in the world.
- Your team keeps the freedom to use it
- Competitors cannot claim it
- You spend roughly 2% of what a patent filing would cost
— HOW IT WORKS
What InnovationQ Does
InnovationQ is the dedicated publishing and search interface to the Prior Art Database from IP.com, a comprehensive, publicly accessible source of non-patent literature (NPL) and technical disclosures. Powered by Semantic Gist® AI technology.
Publish disclosures in minutes
Submit a technical disclosure and establish time-stamped prior art immediately. No attorney required. No prosecution backlog.
Search before you build
Verify that your concept is novel before committing further R&D resources. Search using plain language. Semantic Gist® understands the meaning behind your query, not just the keywords.
Block competitors strategically
A published disclosure immediately creates a protective moat around your innovation, preventing others from filing patents on concepts your team has already documented.
Protect your freedom to operate
Disclosures published to the Prior Art Database are globally discoverable and citable by patent examiners worldwide, from the moment of publication.
Motivate your engineering team
When engineers see their work recognized in the public record, it creates a real incentive to keep contributing. Defensive publishing builds a pipeline and a culture.
Start Defensively Publishing
Protect your innovations, block competitors, and defend your freedom to operate.
— THE PRIOR ART DATABASE
Why the Prior Art Database Is Different.
Not all prior art sources carry equal weight. The Prior Art Database from IP.com is among the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of defensive publications, and it is where patent examiners are required to look.
— Gets in front of the right people
Under Rule 34 of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Prior Art Database is a required reference for international patent examiners. When you publish through InnovationQ, your disclosure is surfaced to the USPTO, EPO, CNIPA, and dozens of international patent authorities.
— Fast publication with a verified prior art date
Patent office early publication can take 14 weeks or more, putting your global freedom to operate at risk. InnovationQ publishes in minutes, and every disclosure receives a time-stamped record that is defensible worldwide.
— AI-powered search
Semantic Gist® surfaces relevant prior art based on concept, not just keywords, finding results that traditional Boolean search misses.
— Free to search
Anyone can search the Prior Art Database at no cost, with no account required.
— WHO IT’S FOR
Built for R&D Teams Who Move Fast.
InnovationQ fits directly into the innovation workflow: before, during, and after development.
Before you build
Search the Prior Art Database to validate your concept and avoid investing resources in something already disclosed.
During development
Identify innovations worth protecting and submit disclosures while the work is still fresh.
After the fact
Capture and publish incremental improvements and workarounds that would never justify a patent filing but should not sit unprotected.
— CUSTOMER SUCCESS
How NetApp Built a Competitive IP Strategy with Defensive Publishing
“The Defensive Publishing solutions and Editing Services from IP.com have been instrumental in helping us stay ahead of the competition and protecting our valuable IP assets.”
— Brandon Hsieh, Senior IP Portfolio Manager, NetApp
NetApp, a global leader in data management and storage solutions, manages a portfolio of thousands of patents and non-patent literature. Facing the dual challenge of protecting IP in a highly competitive landscape while keeping engineering teams motivated, NetApp turned to the defensive publishing solutions and Editing Services from IP.com.
The results: a stronger IP portfolio, faster and cleaner disclosures, and a company-wide culture of continuous innovation.
— EDITING SERVICES
Need help writing a disclosure? We handle that.
“The Editing Services team from IP.com has helped us significantly improve the quality of our invention disclosures, resulting in faster and smoother publishing.”
— Brandon Hsieh, Senior IP Portfolio Manager, NetApp
Most engineers should not have to learn how to write a defensible disclosure. The Editing Services team at IP.com does it for them, producing clear, citable, discoverable disclosures from your raw notes or draft.
Need More? InnovationQ+ Takes It Further.
InnovationQ is free to search and low-cost to publish, the right starting point for most R&D teams. For organizations that need deeper research capability, InnovationQ+ is the natural next step. The full-featured subscription platform adds:
- Patent literature search alongside NPL
- Advanced analytics and search filtering
- Expanded NPL libraries
- Enterprise-grade workflow tools for IP teams
— GET STARTED WITH InnovationQ
Start Protecting Your Innovations Today
Search the Prior Art Database for free. Publish your first disclosure in minutes. Establish prior art for a fraction of the cost of a patent filing.
