Patents are the backbone of protecting innovation, yet the process of securing them in Europe can take years and cost founders precious time and money.
Swedish startup Lightbringer, founded in 2023, believes it has a better way.
I sat down with CEO and co-founder Dominic Davies to hear how his journey from software engineer to patent attorney — and a breakthrough moment with GPT-3 — sparked the creation of a category-defining legaltech company.
Lightbringer aims to transform how patents are created and managed. It combines AI-powered tools with experienced patent attorneys to offer a faster, clearer, and more accessible patent process for innovators, startups, and tech teams.
I spoke to CEO and co-founder Dominic Davies to learn more.
A eureka moment with GPT-3 sparked Lightbringer’s creation
Davies originally studied software engineering at Imperial College London and started out working for Merrill Lynch. He admits,“after a few years in banking, I realised it wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped. I wanted to work with cutting-edge technology, and one route was through intellectual property. So I retrained as a patent attorney at the world’s oldest patent firm in London and became fully qualified.”
Over the past 20 years, while practising as a patent attorney, he continued writing software to solve problems in his field. At one point, he founded a law firm called Invent Horizon, where he developed software to automate all administrative work so that the firm could operate with only lawyers and no administrative staff.
He had also been working for years on software to write patents.
According to Davies, “for nearly a decade, it didn’t work — the AI just wasn’t good enough yet.”
“Then, in 2022, I read that GPT-3 was available via API. I plugged it into my project, and suddenly it sprang to life.
That moment was both euphoric and terrifying. Euphoric because the software finally worked.
It was terrifying because I immediately realised the key problem I’d spent ten years grappling with — and that underpinned my career—had just been solved. I couldn’t sleep for a month.
Eventually, I decided I had to act. I approached a couple of former founders, showed them a demo, and they said right away: “Let’s build this.”
That was the beginning of Lightbringer.
Slow, costly, complex: the reality of filing a patent in Europe
The current patent process looks something like this:
Imagine you’re building a product and preparing to show it to customers, partners, or investors. Someone advises you that unless you file a patent application, you won’t be able to protect your technology.
All in all, patents are a laborious process. The European patent grant procedure takes about three to five years from the date your application is filed. It is made up of two main stages.
The first comprises a formalities examination, the preparation of the search report and the preliminary opinion on whether the claimed invention and the application meet the requirements of the European Patent Convention.
But before you get to filing your patent, you usually need to find a patent lawyer. You book a meeting, explain your business and your technology in detail, and only then does the lawyer begin drafting an application.
According to Davies, “it’s expensive because you’re working with highly qualified people, and it’s slow — it usually takes at least a month before you have a draft. The lawyer has to spend significant time building context for your invention and conducting research.”
Reimagining patents with SaaS-style onboarding
Lightbringer aims to speed up the legal part of the process by replicating the seamless onboarding you’d expect from SaaS tools.
“Think of signing up for Google or HubSpot—you just create an account and you’re off. That’s what we’ve built for patents,” explains Davies.
On the Lightbringer homepage, inventors can immediately begin describing their ideas. The system guides them through the process, helps them articulate the details, and explains how the patent process works.
Drafts can be generated within hours instead of months.
It’s largely self-serve, but with a human in the loop: qualified attorneys review the AI’s work, speak with inventors, and ensure everything is accurate and aligned with their needs.
Since launching its subscription model in May 2024, Lightbringer has already filed more than 100 patents, attracted over 500 users, including founders and legal teams, and achieved a 90 per cent success rate for patents filed within just 30 days. The platform reports 95 per cent user satisfaction and delivers workflows up to ten times faster than traditional drafting processes.
The company’s customers are early adopters, companies that want to buy legal services the way they buy SaaS. According to Davies:
“They’re used to tools like Vanta or HubSpot, so they expect a consumer-like experience. That’s what we deliver.”
While the company is primarily working with smaller companies right now, it’s built an AI-first virtual patent department that can scale to any company.
Davies admits that the company would love to work more with law firms, but they can be conservative, and there’s an inherent business conflict.
“Their model is built around billing by the hour, and we’re reducing the time it takes. Some firms are becoming more open, but our core users are technology companies themselves.”
How Lightbringer keeps startup IP safe
I was curious about data security in that founders are essentially putting their intellectual property into a startup’s software platform.
According to Davies, security was a priority from day 1. Lightvringer is SOC 2 Type II certified. Customer data is protected and segregated. Its contracts with LLM providers, such as Google and OpenAI, ensure that it does not train on customer data:
“We actually have stronger data security provisions than many alternatives.”
That said, the company is very aware of developments — like the New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI that exposed private data — and for that reason doesn’t use OpenAI for certain key functions.
Lightbringer raised a €4.2 million Seed round in 2024 and is growing quickly. It has over 70 customers, many of whom, explained Davies, previously worked with traditional firms.
“They love being able to handle patents in a modern way.”
Lightbringer eyes expansion as patent automation takes off
Looking ahead to 2026, Davies believes companies will take a hard look at how they buy business services — legal, accounting, patents — and will demand more modern, efficient options.
“We’re placed to meet that demand. We also plan to expand to the US, which we see as a key market. For now, our core market is northern Europe and the UK.”
Lightbringer describes itself as “category creators.” According to Davies, investors see what’s coming, sharing:
“They know the way business services are sold is changing, and they see us as well-positioned to grab the market.
It’s disruptive, especially for the patent industry, which could be one of the first legal sectors to undergo major automation.”
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments