Patent Watch YC Application

Fall 2025Active

Patent Watch went through Y Combinator in the Fall 2025 batch as a B2B company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Fall 2025
Industry: B2B
Team size: 4
Status: Active
Launched: 2025

Founders

Alexander StroeFounder
Andreas StroeFounder

What Patent Watch does

We automate patent infringement detection. Our software interprets patents, identifies competing products, and generates claim charts showing who’s infringing and how. Teams use us to: - Find licensing and litigation targets - Send cease-and-desist letters - Find counter litigation - Sell IP in wind-downs - Accelerate M&A diligence We also run AI invalidity and prior-art searches to help your patents hold up in court. Companies spend up to $50k to file and maintain a single patent over its lifetime, but once it's granted, they let it collect dust. With Patent Watch, you can start turning your patent portfolio into revenue in 10 minutes.

Patent Watch's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Patent Watch, Fall 2025 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Patent Watch

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI for detecting patent infringements

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We built Patent Watch to automate patent infringement detection. Our software reads and interprets patent documents, identifies products that might be infringing, and generates detailed claim charts showing exactly who is infringing and how. This helps legal teams quickly find licensing targets, prepare cease-and-desist letters, and accelerate M&A diligence.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live in Toronto, ON, Canada, and plan to keep the company here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Toronto has strong technical talent and a growing AI community. It's where we're based and have our initial customers, so it makes sense to build here.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Patent Watch YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Patent Watch's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Patent Watch would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.