How It Works, How to Get Started
Trust, Transparency, and Security
What It Is, Who It’s For
What is LexisNexis Protégé™ in PatentSight+?
Protégé in PatentSight+ is LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions’s new GenAI-powered assistant, allowing you to ask questions that are quickly turned into structured, visual, and contextualized answers.
It is an AI agent with the persona of an IP Analyst using LexisNexis® PatentSight+™ on your behalf, that is trained to understand the kind of query you have. Instead of manually navigating charts, filters, and workflows, Protégé allows you to ask questions whilst still operating on top of the same trusted PatentSight+ data, metrics, and analytics.
What does it mean that Protégé produces “contextualised” output?
Protégé adapts its responses to the context of your question, previous inputs, and the dataset it is working with. This means outputs are not generic but tailored to your specific use case, such as benchmarking a company, defining a technology space, or validating a portfolio. The core data and logic remain consistent and replicable, but the phrasing and framing of insights are adapted to your context to make them directly usable. Beyond this, Protégé enriches its output with non-patent data and insights taken from its training data, thus enriching the insights based on trusted PatentSight data by other dimensions that would otherwise require manual research.
Who can use Protégé?
Protégé in PatentSight+ is designed for users who need high-value answers to complex patent questions without the hassle of manually constructing queries, building filters or dashboards.
Protégé is built for IP analysts but accessible to a wide range of professionals including R&D, corporate strategy, M&A, and executive leadership. It is designed to remove technical barriers and can prove valuable to a wide range of professionals who don’t have extensive experience with patent tools.
How It Works, How to Get Started
What kind of questions can I ask Protégé?
Protégé is designed to help answer a wide range of strategic questions using natural language input. We do not want to suggest a long list of prompts or be prescriptive in how you use Protégé, but instead we want to inspire you with use cases and welcome feedback on your use of Protégé. Protégé also supports follow-up prompts, enabling users to refine or redirect the analysis as needed.
As you log into Protégé there are suggested prompts for you to try, and our prompt tips provide guidance on best practice so that you get the best response results:
- Focus on intellectual property and business strategy questions (e.g., patents, competitors, licensing, innovation trends)
- State facts for Protégé in PatentSight+ to consider
- Specify your goal and purpose (e.g. evaluate a competitor). Providing context and information helps Protégé in PatentSight+ provide relevant responses.
- Indicate expected answer type or format (e.g. provide a concise summary, a detailed report, or a high-level explanation)
- Refine with follow-up prompts to narrow or expand query
- To get the responses you need, iterate on your prompt, ask follow-up questions, and include additional expectations (e.g. “Can you expand on this point?” or “Provide additional details on the highlighted aspect.”)
Note: AI-generated content must be reviewed for accuracy.
How is Protégé different from a chatbot or dashboard?
Protégé is more than a conversational interface like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini for example. In Protégé you ask your question, and it delivers reasoned, structured, visual and contextualized insights without requiring you to research contextual data, configure filters, or write complex queries.
Unlike general-purpose AI tools, where charts and numbers may be generated by the model itself and risk hallucination, Protégé never generates or alters numeric values. We use the AI to do what the AI is best at; and we do what we do best - this approach builds on over a decade of PatentSight expertise, ensuring users receive reliable, trustworthy insights while still benefiting from AI-driven interaction.
What sets Protégé apart is how it balances AI flexibility with analytical correctness.
The AI is used to determine how to interpret a question and how to query the data, but the visualisations are produced through a deterministic process using PatentSight+ data and analytics, without passing through the language model. It is an AI agent with the persona of an IP Analyst using PatentSight+ on your behalf, that is trained to understand the kind of query you have. Instead of manually navigating charts, filters, and workflows, Protégé allows you to ask questions whilst still operating on top of the same trusted PatentSight+ data, metrics, and analytics.
In addition, dashboards demand manual setup which takes time and still leaves users responsible for gathering and interpreting supporting context, whereas Protégé handles that complexity in the background, so you can focus on the insight, not the process.
What does the long-term roadmap look like for Protégé?
Protégé will expand over time to cover a growing number of strategic use cases in patent analytics, and the assistant will become increasingly sophisticated in applying patent analytics best practices across areas we have evaluated for such as technology scoping, benchmarking, and portfolio analysis. Over the long term, we also plan to integrate adjacent data sources and tailor outputs to the specific business context and role of each user, making Protégé a more personalized and powerful partner for IP and business decision-making.
We will also work on collaboration features between Protégé and PatentSight+. Future development in this area will be guided by customer feedback and demand. By participating in the AI Insider Program, you can help shape how collaboration may be supported in upcoming releases.
How can I try Protégé in PatentSight+?
Protégé enters commercial preview in January 2026. To be considered for early communications and potential early access, join the AI Insider Program here. AI Insiders will be the first to hear about development updates and availability. The commercial preview provides the opportunity to explore Protégé before general availability and actively shape its development. Participation requires engagement, such as providing feedback in surveys, sharing in-app feedback, and occasionally joining research discussions.
Protege and PatentSight+
How does Protégé interact with the existing PatentSight+ solution?
Users will have two ways to generate insights:
Use Protégé to ask a question in plain language and receive visual, structured, and contextualized answers automatically. Protégé will provide search syntax when retrieving PatentSight+ data, allowing you to reproduce and validate results in Custom Analysis.
Use Custom Analysis (what users know PatentSight+ as today) to build reports manually using filters, patent sets, and charts.
While both paths lead to insights, they are currently distinct. Future enhancements may deepen integration between Protégé and Custom Analysis, but for now, they offer parallel options one AI-guided, the other, do-it-yourself.
How can I validate Protégé output in PatentSight+?
Whenever Protégé retrieves data from PatentSight+, it provides the exact search syntax used. This allows you to reproduce the search and result set within the PatentSight+ Custom Analysis capability, ensuring full transparency and enabling you to refine the analysis using the platform’s established tools.
Are Protégé answers replicable?
Yes. Protégé’s outputs are grounded in the trusted PatentSight+ dataset and consistent with its underlying indicators. While the phrasing of responses may vary, the underlying data and logic remain stable, ensuring reproducibility.
General Usage Questions
Does Protégé also work in other languages or only in English?
You can ask questions in multiple languages. At launch, the most thoroughly tested and optimized languages are English and Japanese. Support for additional languages will be expanded based on customer demand.
How can I tell when a question is out of scope for Protégé?
Protégé is built with transparency at its core. It provides the exact search syntax used in PatentSight+, outlines its reasoning steps, and indicates when data or capabilities are outside current scope. This ensures you always know what Protégé can and cannot do, and gives you confidence in validating results.
Can I export results?
Export capabilities will be introduced at a later point in time. One-click export for visual and text output is planned for first release. Exporting to other common formats such as Excel and PowerPoint will follow later.
Which web browsers are supported for Protégé in PatentSight+?
Protégé in PatentSight+ is optimized for use with Google Chrome, which delivers the best overall experience in terms of performance, reliability, and feature support. While Protégé may function in other modern browsers, including Safari, these are not officially supported and some features or interactions may not work as intended. For the most consistent and fully supported experience, we recommend accessing Protégé using the latest version of Google Chrome.
Trust, Transparency and Security
LexisNexis prioritizes security and customer data protection across the entire product development lifecycle. Protégé in PatentSight+ is built and operated under the same rigorous, audited security standards applied across the LexisNexis product ecosystem. Dedicated application security experts, engineers, and data protection officers work together to ensure strong technical, organizational, and physical safeguards are in place. These controls are continuously reviewed and updated to address evolving regulatory requirements and security threats without materially reducing protection. For more information, please reach out to a member of our team here.
How is my data protected when using Protégé?
All customer data is protected using enterprise-grade encryption and access controls. Data is encrypted at rest using AES-256 and encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2 or higher. Data is stored in LexisNexis private cloud environments that are continuously monitored, logged, and audited against ISO 27001 standards. Access is restricted using role-based controls and multi-factor authentication, with all access events logged and reviewed .
Is my data safe with Protégé?
Yes. Protégé follows the same enterprise-grade security protocols as the rest of the LexisNexis ecosystem. Your queries and usage data are never used to train external models. Protégé is compliant with ISO 27001, GDPR, and CCPA.
How are my prompts and conversations handled?
Each prompt submitted to Protégé is processed as an isolated transaction. Prompts and conversation history are securely retained for up to 90 days (or until deleted by the user) to support transparency, auditability, and responsible AI governance. The retention environment is isolated, encrypted, continuously monitored, and regularly audited. Cloud providers may access systems only for infrastructure support and troubleshooting and do not have access to user prompts or conversations .
Are my prompts or conversations used to train AI models?
No. LexisNexis does not use customer data, prompts, or conversations to train or fine-tune its large language models. Protégé uses external LLMs under a strict zero data retention policy, and customer data remains isolated from those models. Users also have control over their prompt history, including the ability to delete it .
Can LexisNexis employees see my Protégé queries?
Access to customer usage data is strictly limited. A small, authorized group of product support professionals may review usage data solely for product support and technical troubleshooting. Access follows the principle of least privilege, is protected by multi-factor authentication, and customer association is pseudo-anonymized wherever possible .
What security testing is performed on Protégé?
Protégé undergoes comprehensive application security testing throughout its lifecycle. This includes static application security testing (SAST), software component analysis (SCA) for third-party and open-source dependencies, dynamic application security testing (DAST), and regular penetration testing. Security gates prevent insecure code from reaching production, and vulnerabilities are remediated based on defined severity timelines. Penetration test reports are available to customers upon request under NDA .
How is network and infrastructure security managed?
Network security controls are implemented using a least-access model to prevent unauthorized access and traffic interception. Inbound, outbound, and internal traffic is tightly restricted, and private endpoints are used where appropriate to secure cloud service access. Protégé is deployed on LexisNexis infrastructure and follows the same validated architecture, audits, and security reviews used across other LexisNexis products, including Lexis+ AI .
What authentication options are available for Protégé?
Protégé supports secure authentication through the PatentSight+ Web Access Management (WAM) system and also supports federated Single Sign-On (SSO) using SAML 2.0. The LexisNexis technical support team assists customers during onboarding and SSO configuration .
How does LexisNexis manage third-party risk?
All vendors and third parties undergo security assessments as part of the LexisNexis Vendor Management Program. Vendors are evaluated using a risk-based approach that considers access to customer data, system access, and whether the vendor performs a critical function. Vendor security posture is reviewed periodically after onboarding .
What privacy standards does Protégé follow?
LexisNexis processes personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws, its Privacy Policy, and its Data Processing Addendum. Personal data is processed solely to provide the services described, and approved subprocessors are disclosed transparently. Customer data entered into Protégé is not shared with other LexisNexis products unless explicitly communicated and authorized .
Is Protégé certified against industry security standards?
Protégé in PatentSight+ follows the same enterprise security framework used across LexisNexis products and will be ISO 27001 certified. LexisNexis cloud environments, products, and security programs are audited annually, covering encryption, backup, disaster recovery, access controls, data destruction, breach prevention, and confidentiality safeguards .
How does LexisNexis respond to security incidents?
LexisNexis maintains robust incident response policies and procedures covering technical, administrative, business, and executive escalation. These plans are regularly tested and updated. External cybersecurity firms are retained to provide additional expertise and guidance when needed, ensuring a rapid and coordinated response to potential threats .
Can I access audit reports or detailed security documentation?
Yes. Audit reports, security documentation, and detailed architectural materials are available upon request. Customers should contact their LexisNexis account team or support representative for further information.