"Aconnect" Patent Search Agent Now Supports European Patents (EPO), Enabling Broader and More Precise Patent Searches for R&D Sites
Stockmark Inc. has added European Patents (EPO) to the search scope of its "Aconnect" patent search agent. This update allows R&D and intellectual property personnel in the manufacturing industry to efficiently conduct broader patent searches, including the European market, and to detect development rework and infringement risks early.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 30, 2026 at 20:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 30, 2026 at 11:31
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 30, 2026 at 14:30 (2h 58m after Collected)
Stockmark Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Tatsu Hayashi; hereinafter: the Company), which independently develops domestic generative AI foundations and provides generative AI services, announces that its AI agent for the manufacturing industry, "Aconnect," has added European Patents (EPO) to the search scope of its patent search agent.
This update enables broader prior art searches and clearance searches, significantly reducing the search workload for R&D and intellectual property personnel in the manufacturing industry who benchmark European trends.
### Background: The Importance and Challenges of "European Patent Search"
The European market holds an extremely important position in the global expansion of the manufacturing industry. Until now, "Aconnect"'s patent search agent has provided a function for investigating relevance to in-house technologies, targeting patent publications from Japan (JPO), the United States (USPTO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
However, understanding the patent trends of European companies is indispensable not only for benchmarking competitors' technologies but also for avoiding development rework and infringement risks. Customers competing with world-leading technologies have also requested "to make patents from more countries subject to automatic search."
With the new inclusion of European Patents (EPO) as a target, the scope for efficient searching has greatly expanded for companies benchmarking European company patents, making it possible to provide a seamless search environment that covers major international patents.
### Main Functions and Features of the "Patent Search Agent"
The "Patent Search Agent" is a function that autonomously performs patent search operations, including parts of prior art searches and clearance searches, using AI. It primarily replaces tasks with the following three approaches, realizing efficiency in search workload and early detection of development rework and patent risks.
- Automatic extraction of components to be searched
The AI highly analyzes the planned development technology input by the user and automatically extracts the components that should be focused on in patent searches.
- Evaluation of matching degree with related patents, with justification
Based on the extracted elements, the AI objectively presents and evaluates the degree of matching with related patent groups, along with justification.
- Intuitive UI to identify patents requiring detailed investigation
It provides a user interface (UI) that intuitively identifies patents that humans should examine in detail from a vast number of patents.
### Benefits of Introduction
#### Drastic Reduction in Search Workload
It reduces the time spent on manual keyword searches and reading, allowing users to concentrate on truly creative research and development work.
#### Early Detection of Development Rework and Patent Risks
A wide range of patent networks, from domestic to the U.S. and Europe, can be seamlessly searched with the same agent. This minimizes the risk of hitting a fatal "patent wall" in the final stages of development and enables early optimization of development strategies from both domestic and global perspectives.
#### Deepening of Benchmarking
By comprehensively monitoring the latest technologies of domestic and international competitors, users can grasp technology trends from multiple perspectives. Especially with the inclusion of influential European company patents as search targets, it supports the analysis of global competitive advantages that tend to be overlooked from a purely Japanese perspective, aiding in world-class differentiation strategies.
### Future Outlook: Further Expansion of Target Countries
Aiming to improve the speed and quality of decision-making in the manufacturing industry, "Aconnect" will continue to strengthen its functions. For the patent search agent, following this European patent support, we plan to sequentially expand patent data from major Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, and South Korea.
The Company will continue to support the DX of the manufacturing industry as an "AI Partner" to win global technological competition.
### About Aconnect
"Aconnect" is an AI that understands your work, searches for information on your behalf, delivers insights, and detects risks and opportunities without fail.
It summarizes necessary information from a wide range of sources such as business news, academic papers, patents, and internal documents, supporting faster and more reliable decision-making in development sites.
- Aconnect: https://aconnect.stockmark.co.jp
### About Stockmark's Solutions
AI utilization is an indispensable element for maintaining competitiveness. However, many companies face challenges such as "data is not organized," "adoption by the現場 is not progressing," and "not leading to concrete results." Stockmark comprehensively solves these problems by providing the following six solutions.
### About Stockmark Inc.
Stockmark Inc. is committed to the mission of "reinventing the mechanism of value creation and advancing humanity," utilizing cutting-edge generative AI technology.
This update enables broader prior art searches and clearance searches, significantly reducing the search workload for R&D and intellectual property personnel in the manufacturing industry who benchmark European trends.
### Background: The Importance and Challenges of "European Patent Search"
The European market holds an extremely important position in the global expansion of the manufacturing industry. Until now, "Aconnect"'s patent search agent has provided a function for investigating relevance to in-house technologies, targeting patent publications from Japan (JPO), the United States (USPTO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
However, understanding the patent trends of European companies is indispensable not only for benchmarking competitors' technologies but also for avoiding development rework and infringement risks. Customers competing with world-leading technologies have also requested "to make patents from more countries subject to automatic search."
With the new inclusion of European Patents (EPO) as a target, the scope for efficient searching has greatly expanded for companies benchmarking European company patents, making it possible to provide a seamless search environment that covers major international patents.
### Main Functions and Features of the "Patent Search Agent"
The "Patent Search Agent" is a function that autonomously performs patent search operations, including parts of prior art searches and clearance searches, using AI. It primarily replaces tasks with the following three approaches, realizing efficiency in search workload and early detection of development rework and patent risks.
- Automatic extraction of components to be searched
The AI highly analyzes the planned development technology input by the user and automatically extracts the components that should be focused on in patent searches.
- Evaluation of matching degree with related patents, with justification
Based on the extracted elements, the AI objectively presents and evaluates the degree of matching with related patent groups, along with justification.
- Intuitive UI to identify patents requiring detailed investigation
It provides a user interface (UI) that intuitively identifies patents that humans should examine in detail from a vast number of patents.
### Benefits of Introduction
#### Drastic Reduction in Search Workload
It reduces the time spent on manual keyword searches and reading, allowing users to concentrate on truly creative research and development work.
#### Early Detection of Development Rework and Patent Risks
A wide range of patent networks, from domestic to the U.S. and Europe, can be seamlessly searched with the same agent. This minimizes the risk of hitting a fatal "patent wall" in the final stages of development and enables early optimization of development strategies from both domestic and global perspectives.
#### Deepening of Benchmarking
By comprehensively monitoring the latest technologies of domestic and international competitors, users can grasp technology trends from multiple perspectives. Especially with the inclusion of influential European company patents as search targets, it supports the analysis of global competitive advantages that tend to be overlooked from a purely Japanese perspective, aiding in world-class differentiation strategies.
### Future Outlook: Further Expansion of Target Countries
Aiming to improve the speed and quality of decision-making in the manufacturing industry, "Aconnect" will continue to strengthen its functions. For the patent search agent, following this European patent support, we plan to sequentially expand patent data from major Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, and South Korea.
The Company will continue to support the DX of the manufacturing industry as an "AI Partner" to win global technological competition.
### About Aconnect
"Aconnect" is an AI that understands your work, searches for information on your behalf, delivers insights, and detects risks and opportunities without fail.
It summarizes necessary information from a wide range of sources such as business news, academic papers, patents, and internal documents, supporting faster and more reliable decision-making in development sites.
- Aconnect: https://aconnect.stockmark.co.jp
### About Stockmark's Solutions
AI utilization is an indispensable element for maintaining competitiveness. However, many companies face challenges such as "data is not organized," "adoption by the現場 is not progressing," and "not leading to concrete results." Stockmark comprehensively solves these problems by providing the following six solutions.
### About Stockmark Inc.
Stockmark Inc. is committed to the mission of "reinventing the mechanism of value creation and advancing humanity," utilizing cutting-edge generative AI technology.