Tech entrepreneur Alex Levkin shares how he turned 12 years of IP expertise into a fast-growing platform, iPNOTE, with over 90% retention, 3x annual growth, and a mission to democratize global IP protection.
For the last decade, Alex Levkin has been transforming the intellectual property industry through strategic innovation and cutting-edge technology. As a patent attorney with IP industry expertise and advanced degrees in corporate management strategy and technical sciences, Levkin founded iPNOTE—an AI-powered platform delivering 5x cost reductions compared to traditional methods.
Under his leadership, iPNOTE recently surpassed $2 million in revenue, maintaining 2x annual growth for three consecutive years. The platform serves clients across 60+ countries with over 90% customer retention. His strategic vision culminated in a successful 2025 Wefunder campaign, attracting support from 50 investors and positioning iPNOTE within the $216B IP services market. These days, Levkin is expanding AI capabilities to democratize high-quality IP services.
In this interview, we discussed building a global platform, creating transparent cost efficiency, and his vision for the future of IP protection.
With over a decade of expertise in the IP industry and a background as a patent attorney, you've witnessed firsthand how outdated traditional IP services can be. What specific inefficiencies did you identify that convinced you the industry was ready for technological disruption?
What struck me most after years in the industry was how fragmented and outdated the entire system of managing intellectual property still was. Companies have to coordinate with countless local law firms in different jurisdictions, each with their own processes, communication styles, and pricing. This isn't just a challenge for small businesses that are taking their first steps in IP—even well-established law firms often resell the services of foreign partners, adding another layer of inefficiency. And for large corporations with global portfolios, the problem scales dramatically. They end up spending enormous amounts of time and resources just to track deadlines, exchange documents, and keep communication flowing across dozens of local providers.
The issue becomes even clearer with foreign filings. You always face a trade-off: either consolidate suppliers and pay significant markups, or spread the work across many local firms and spend huge amounts of time managing them. Both options drain budgets and productivity.
Instead of focusing on the strategy of protecting and growing their IP, businesses of all sizes are forced to deal with administrative chaos. The lack of standardization, transparency, and technology makes IP management one of the most time-consuming and expensive areas of legal work today. That was the clearest signal to me that the industry was not just ready but urgently in need of disruption.
iPNOTE now serves customers from 60+ countries. How did you build such strong international trust in an industry where relationships and reputation are traditionally built over decades?
That's a great question. In intellectual property, trust is everything—and traditionally, it's something built slowly, through decades of personal relationships. We didn't have the luxury of waiting that long, so we had to create trust by design.
First, we focused on transparency. Instead of the usual opaque quotes and hidden markups, our platform makes pricing and processes clear from the start. Clients can see who they are working with, how much it costs, and what the timeline looks like. That level of openness immediately sets us apart in an industry where many companies still operate behind closed doors.
Second, we built reliability into the product itself. Our marketplace model only includes vetted professionals—top-tier law firms and patent attorneys who already have years of proven experience. By giving clients a single platform to access this network, we solved one of the industry's biggest headaches: managing dozens of scattered local providers.
Finally, we let results speak louder than promises. When clients from different countries saw they could register trademarks or patents several times cheaper and with far less friction, word spread quickly. That combination of cost efficiency, speed, and professionalism created a new kind of trust—one that isn't tied to a personal handshake but to consistent performance across borders.
In a way, we've proven that reputation in IP doesn't have to take decades anymore. If you give companies a transparent, reliable, and modern alternative, they're ready to switch.
Your journey to surpassing $1 million in total revenue is remarkable. Can you walk us through the key strategic pivots, particularly the AI implementation in 2023, that converted client words into legal terms? What technical and business decisions drove this acceleration?
Certainly. Reaching that milestone was not the result of one breakthrough but of several strategic pivots that all aligned at the right time. The most transformative one came in 2023, when we introduced AI into the platform.
Before that, we were essentially a digital marketplace connecting clients with IP professionals. It worked, but the client experience was still limited by the same bottlenecks: people had to describe their needs in plain language, and lawyers had to interpret those descriptions into legal terms. That process was slow, expensive, and intimidating for non-experts.
By embedding AI into the workflow, we solved this gap. Clients can now explain their situation in everyday words—"I want to protect my app in Europe" or "I need to secure my brand name in India"—and the system automatically converts that into the structured legal tasks. This shift removed friction on both sides: clients feel empowered to start immediately, and attorneys receive requests that are already formatted in professional language.
That was the inflection point. It transformed iPNOTE from a marketplace with potential into a global IP platform capable of scaling quickly—and it's what pushed us past $1 million in revenue far earlier than we originally projected.
With over 90% retention rate, you've clearly achieved a strong product-market fit. How do you measure customer success in the IP space, and what specific features or services drive such high retention in your platform?
In IP, customer success looks a little different from many SaaS industries. It isn't just about daily usage metrics—it's about whether clients feel that their intellectual property is being protected reliably, transparently, and without wasted effort.
We measure success first by outcomes: successful filings, renewals, and portfolio management with minimal errors or missed deadlines. That's the baseline expectation. Beyond that, we look at how much friction we've removed. Are clients able to initiate filings in minutes instead of weeks? Do they clearly understand pricing and timelines? Do they return to us for their next filing or expand into new jurisdictions through the platform? Those are the signals that tell us we're solving real problems for them.
As for what drives our high retention, two elements stand out. The first is transparency—clients see clear pricing, clear processes, and no hidden markups. That builds long-term trust. The second is the combination of AI assistance and a vetted global network of IP professionals. Clients can start tasks in plain language, and they know that behind the scenes, there's an experienced attorney ensuring quality. This blend of automation and expertise means they save both time and money without sacrificing reliability.
In short, our retention is high because clients don't see iPNOTE as a one-off tool; they see it as their ongoing partner in managing IP globally. Once they've experienced that difference, going back to the old way of working feels unthinkable.
With your proven growth trajectory and plans to double your team and launch extensive marketing campaigns, what percentage of this market do you see as addressable through your technology-first approach? How are you going to win over your competitors?
The IP industry is worth over $200 billion globally, and we estimate at least 30% of that market is directly addressable through a technology-first approach. That's because the pain points are universal: whether you're a startup filing your first trademark, a law firm coordinating foreign filings, or a Fortune 500 company managing thousands of patents, you face the same administrative chaos of juggling dozens of local providers.
Our edge is that we're not just another marketplace or law firm. iPNOTE is essentially your virtual IP manager or IP paralegal—an AI agent that automates the annoying back-and-forth with patent attorneys. Instead of dealing with endless email threads across countries, you send one instruction to our AI, and it handles everything: creating tasks for each jurisdiction, drafting tailored instructions, consolidating attorney questions into a single response, tracking deadlines, and even processing payments.
We're turning weeks of manual coordination into automated efficiency, reducing costs by up to 50% and giving companies a single point of contact for their entire global IP portfolio. And unlike traditional providers, we don't force clients to change their processes or adopt new tools—our AI works through the channels they already use, like email or messenger, making adoption seamless.
So while competitors are still selling relationships and billable hours, we're selling efficiency and scale. That's how we win—by being the only solution that combines the trust of vetted attorneys with the automation of AI, creating a step change in how global IP is managed.
iPNOTE delivers several times cost reductions compared to traditional IP services while providing transparent cost estimates from multiple providers. Can you walk us through a specific use case that enables such dramatic cost savings?
Traditionally, if a company wants to protect its brand in, say, 10 countries, it has two options. They can consolidate everything with one big international law firm, which charges a significant markup for coordinating local agents. Or they can reach out to 10 different local firms directly, which means weeks of emailing, comparing quotes, managing different processes, and translating all the communication into something their team can actually act on. In both cases, they spend far more money and time than necessary.
With iPNOTE, the process looks entirely different. The client simply submits one instruction—even in plain language, like "we want to register our trademark in these 10 countries." The platform instantly gathers transparent cost estimates from vetted local attorneys, allowing the client to compare and choose. Our AI agent then coordinates the entire workflow: sending precise instructions to each local attorney, consolidating all their questions into one organized response, tracking deadlines, and ensuring filings move forward smoothly.
The result is dramatic. Instead of paying a markup of 2–3x through a global firm or burning weeks of staff time managing the process internally, the client sees cost reductions of 50% or more and an enormous boost in productivity, saving 10x in time. The legal quality is the same—in fact, often better, because they're working directly with trusted local experts.
This is where the cost savings really come from: eliminating unnecessary intermediaries, cutting hidden markups, and automating the "ping pong" of communication that used to drain both budgets and patience.
Your AI-powered platform manages IP assets across diverse jurisdictions while providing centralized management tools, automated reminders, and robust collaboration features. How did you approach building AI systems that can navigate international IP law complexities while maintaining the user-friendly interface that your clients clearly value?
When we built iPNOTE's AI systems, our guiding principle was simple: automate everything that follows international IP standards, and delegate the jurisdiction-specific nuances to local attorneys. This way, we never compromise on legal precision.
For example, international treaties create a common framework across many countries. Those workflows can be reliably automated: deadline tracking, priority claims, reminders, renewals—the AI can manage all of that flawlessly. But when it comes to country-specific nuances—how exactly an examiner in Japan handles a design application versus in Brazil—we route those tasks to vetted local attorneys. That ensures no detail is missed.
On top of that, we integrated directly with global trademark and patent databases. This allows us to pull structured information from 190+ countries—prior art, application statuses, expiration dates—and consolidate it in one dashboard for the client. So the AI is not just a task manager, it's also a global monitoring system.
The result is a platform that feels effortless to the user. They interact with one AI agent, while behind the scenes, the system automates universal IP processes, coordinates with local experts for specifics, and aggregates data globally. That's how we balance simplicity on the surface with legal reliability under the hood.
With your background in technical sciences and corporate management strategy, how do you balance the technical complexity required for IP management with user experience simplicity?
That balance has been at the heart of iPNOTE from the very beginning. My background in both technical sciences and corporate management gave me a front-row seat to the disconnect between how complex IP really is behind the scenes and how overwhelming that feels to the average business user. Most founders or even corporate managers don't want to learn the intricacies of classification systems, filing requirements, or procedural rules. They just want to know that their brand, design, or technology is protected—and that it's happening in the most efficient and reliable way.
The way we address this is by separating the "complexity layer" from the "experience layer." On the back end, our system handles the highly technical tasks: parsing international treaties, integrating with patent and trademark databases, structuring filings, coordinating deadlines, and aligning with jurisdiction-specific rules through local attorneys. On the front end, we deliberately make the interaction feel as natural as talking to a human paralegal. You can type: "Please file my trademark in the U.S., EU, and India"—and the AI agent takes it from there.
This philosophy comes directly from my management strategy experience. A company's leadership should be focused on growth and innovation, not on decoding legal procedures. So our responsibility is to hide the complexity while guaranteeing legal accuracy. In practice, that means clients only see a clean, user-friendly interface, while under the hood, the platform is orchestrating an enormous amount of legal and technical detail.
Serving customers across 60+ countries requires a deep understanding of diverse regulatory environments. How did you systematically approach international expansion? Which markets proved most challenging, and how did you adapt your platform for different regional requirements?
From the start, we knew international expansion had to be systematic, not opportunistic. Intellectual property is global by nature, and our clients rarely stop at just one jurisdiction. So we built the platform around international standards first because they form the backbone of how filings are recognized worldwide. That gave us a strong foundation to scale across borders.
The second step was partnerships. We didn't try to replace local expertise; instead, we built a vetted network of attorneys in each jurisdiction and gave them a unified channel to work through our platform. That way, clients experience one smooth workflow, while the local nuances are always handled by professionals on the ground.
Some markets definitely proved more challenging. For example, India has a huge volume of filings but very specific procedural requirements and longer examination timelines. Latin America is another region with diverse rules country by country, and language adds another layer of complexity. In these markets, we adapted by strengthening local attorney collaboration and tailoring our AI prompts so the system could translate a client's plain instruction into country-specific legal tasks without losing detail.
We also integrated with global trademark and patent databases, so we could pull structured information across jurisdictions into one place. This was critical for making the user experience consistent—no matter where you file, you see deadlines, statuses, and costs presented in the same transparent way.
In short, our expansion strategy was about standardization at the core and localization at the edges. That balance allowed us to grow into 60+ countries without forcing clients to learn 60+ different systems.
Your successful Wefunder campaign indicates strong investor confidence in your scaling strategy. What specifically convinced investors that IPNOTE is positioned to capture significant market share in the IP services industry?
What made the Wefunder campaign special is that most of the investors weren't just outsiders betting on a market—they were our own users, clients, and even partner law firms. These are people who experience the platform every day, who know exactly how much time and money it saves, and who understand firsthand how broken the traditional system is.
They invested because they already see the value and trust the model. For us, that's the strongest validation possible: when the very people who rely on your product are willing to back it financially, it shows deep conviction that iPNOTE isn't just useful—it's essential and poised for long-term success.
Having been in the IP market for over a decade, what are the most significant changes you've observed in how businesses approach intellectual property protection? What metrics will define success for iPNOTE over the next 3–5 years?
Over the past decade, I've seen a fundamental change in how businesses approach intellectual property. Ten years ago, it was mostly large corporations with dedicated legal teams that treated IP as a core asset. Today, even startups and fast-scaling tech companies prioritize IP from day one—but they demand modern standards: transparency, speed, and affordability. The old model of inflated fees, markups, and endless back-and-forth no longer matches how companies operate.
For iPNOTE, success over the next three to five years will be defined by measurable scale. We'll track not only the number of companies managing their portfolios on the platform, but also the volume of transactions flowing through iPNOTE and the total turnover of those deals. Our ambition is to reach close to $1 billion in transaction volume within five years—but what excites me most is becoming the default global infrastructure for IP. But beyond the numbers, what excites me most is the bigger picture—building the default global infrastructure for IP, the way Stripe became for payments or Salesforce for CRM.
iPNOTE's mission is to help businesses "focus on innovation rather than administrative hurdles" by addressing key pain points like missed deadlines and fragmented processes. How do you measure the broader impact of this approach on your clients' innovation cycles and business outcomes?
We measure our impact by looking at how much time and energy we give back to our clients. Intellectual property management is often invisible work—chasing deadlines, coordinating across jurisdictions, and answering endless attorney questions. When we automate that layer, companies can redirect those resources into actual innovation and growth.
For startups, the effect is immediate: instead of a founder or COO spending weeks on filings, they can launch products faster and expand into new markets with confidence. For larger corporations, it's about scale. They can manage hundreds or thousands of assets without growing headcount or risking missed deadlines, which translates into lower costs and stronger portfolio protection.
The broader metric we watch is portfolio expansion relative to team size. If a client is able to double the number of jurisdictions where they protect their brand or technology without adding administrative staff, that's a clear sign we're fueling their innovation cycle. And over the long run, those outcomes compound into stronger valuations, smoother fundraising, and more competitive global positioning.
As both a patent attorney and tech entrepreneur, you have unique insights into where IP technology is heading. What emerging technologies do you see as game-changers for IP management and protection?
As both a patent attorney and tech entrepreneur, I see the real game-changer in IP technology being the rise of vertical AI agents. Horizontal AI tools are impressive, but they're not defensible—sooner or later, large platforms will absorb those capabilities. What will endure are AI systems built for specific industries, like intellectual property, where they can automate entire workflows end-to-end and deliver real outcomes instead of just simplifying one step.
These vertical agents are harder to replace, easier to adopt, and create genuine defensibility because they embed themselves deeply into the processes of law firms, corporations, and startups alike. And investors are beginning to recognize this—I see venture interest shifting away from broad, hype-driven AI products toward specialized vertical solutions that solve mission-critical problems in complex industries.
That's why I believe the next wave of innovation in IP won't come from generic AI, but from specialized agents designed with deep domain expertise.
Your success story, from recognizing industry inefficiencies to building a platform serving 60+ countries, offers valuable insights for other tech entrepreneurs. What key lessons would you share with founders looking to disrupt traditional professional service industries?
The first lesson is that you need to live with the problem before you try to solve it. I spent almost a decade managing international IP cases manually, dealing with endless emails, markups, and inefficiencies. That deep, hands-on pain is what allowed me to see how broken the system was and to design a solution that actually worked. If you're disrupting professional services, you need to understand the workflows inside out—otherwise you'll build a tool nobody really adopts.
The second lesson is to keep iterating relentlessly. Apply modern technologies, test them in real workflows, and never stop refining the product. Talk to your clients constantly, listen to their feedback, and adapt quickly.
And the final one: don't give up when it gets hard. Traditional industries resist change, and disruption always comes with obstacles. But if you have conviction in the problem and keep pushing, you can turn those challenges into your strongest competitive advantage.
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