Intellectual Property
The architecture behind Anchor BlackBox is protected by a provisional patent filing covering the core method for creating an auditable, court-ready chain of custody for AI-assisted legal work.
A flight data recorder captures what happened, in sequence, without asking the crew to remember. Anchor BlackBox does the same thing for AI-assisted legal work. The patent covers the method, not just the product. It protects the way we structure, sequence, sign, and surface the record of how AI was used in a legal matter, so that record can withstand scrutiny in court, in front of a regulator, and in a malpractice proceeding.
The filing covers the full system: the recording layer, the custody chain, the scoring method, and the replay mechanism. Together they constitute a novel approach to AI governance documentation that no existing legal technology platform provides.
Core Inventive Claims
The method of operating two parallel recording systems, one capturing AI decision events (AIDR™) and one capturing AI conversation sessions (AICR™), with synchronized timestamps, cryptographic integrity verification, and structured metadata fields designed specifically for legal matter management. No prior art exists for a dual-recorder system purpose-built for the legal supervision context.
The method of constructing a six-chain custody record, AI Chain, Human Chain, Document Chain, Delivery Chain, Approval Chain, and Chronology Chain, from atomic event records, and linking those chains into a single queryable data structure associated with a legal matter identifier. The custody record is designed to satisfy eDiscovery production requirements and survive chain-of-custody challenges at the evidence admissibility stage.
The method of computing a live governance health score, expressed as Green, Yellow, or Red, from the completeness and integrity status of all six custody chains on an active legal matter. Every missing event in the AI workflow, whether a prompt with no response record, a response with no attorney review, a reviewed output with no delivery record, or a delivery with no approval, reduces the Chain Score and contributes to a growing custody gap. When the cumulative weight of those gaps crosses a threshold, the system flags an Orphan Work Product™ condition: a state in which AI-generated content can no longer be fully accounted for in the chain of custody before the matter closes. A single missed event is a warning. A pattern of missed events is an Orphan Work Product™ condition. The scoring method creates a first-of-its-kind early warning system for legal malpractice risk arising from accumulated gaps in AI supervision, not just individual missed steps.
The method of stripping client identifying information from AI prompts before transmission to a large language model, storing the anonymized and original versions as separate immutable records, and re-injecting client identity at session close, producing four versioned records per interaction: original, anonymized-sent, anonymized-received, and re-injected final. This protocol protects attorney-client privilege and confidentiality obligations at the data layer, not just the policy layer.
The method of reconstructing a complete AI-assisted legal session from stored AIDR™ and AICR™ records, in original chronological sequence, and producing a signed, timestamped export suitable for production to a court, regulator, client, or insurance carrier. The export format is designed to be interpretable by a non-technical fact-finder without additional supporting documentation.
The method of automatically generating four privilege-assertion documents, the Counsel Direction Memo, the Firm AI Governance Policy, the Session Chain of Custody, and the Commercial Terms Certificate, from the underlying AIDR™ and AICR™ records, structured to satisfy the three-prong Heppner test for extending attorney-client privilege to AI governance materials. The Kovel Package is the first automated mechanism for asserting and documenting privilege over AI governance records in legal matters.
IP Ownership Structure
The provisional patent application, along with all trademarks, source code, AI orchestration engine, prompt libraries, legal rule libraries, training datasets, and brand assets, are owned by Anchor IP Holdings LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. Anchor BlackBox Inc. (Delaware C-Corp) operates under an exclusive license and is the sole authorized commercial user of this intellectual property.
This structure provides a clean separation between IP ownership and operating risk, and a sound foundation for licensing arrangements, strategic partnerships, and future financing.
Registered and Pending Trademarks
This page describes a provisional patent application filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A provisional application establishes a priority date and provides twelve months to file a non-provisional application. The claims described here are pending and have not been examined or allowed by the USPTO. All product and feature names referenced are trademarks of Anchor IP Holdings LLC. Patent pending. © 2026 Anchor BlackBox Inc.