Our story
We built Idea Clerk to make patents make sense
Filing a patent shouldn’t require a law degree or a five-figure budget. We set out to give every founder a clearer, more affordable path to protecting their ideas.
Founder-friendly · Plain English · Built on Paximal
WHAT WE BELIEVE
The principles behind everything we build
A few simple convictions shape how we think about patents and the founders we serve.
Ideas deserve protection
Every founder should be able to protect what they build, regardless of budget or background.
Clarity over jargon
Patents are confusing enough. We translate the process into plain English at every step.
Borders should not matter
Great ideas come from everywhere, so we built a path that works for founders worldwide.
Founders first
We measure success by how protected founders feel — not by billable hours.
Quality without compromise
Affordable does not mean cutting corners. Every application is built to professional standards.
Better technology
We pair Paximal’s patent-drafting engine with easy access to independent attorney review, so getting to patent pending is faster and more accessible.
HOW WE GOT HERE
From frustration to a better way
The problem
Founders kept telling us patents felt slow, expensive, and impossible to understand.
The build
So we built a clearer, founder-first way to file — powered by Paximal’s patent engine.
Today
Idea Clerk now helps founders around the world protect their inventions with confidence.
OUR STORY
Our Roots
Idea Clerk was built by a team that spans patent law, IP software, and startup engineering. Ian is a patent attorney and longtime patent-automation builder; Zak has spent more than a decade building and scaling IP software at leading legal-tech companies; and Orfeas is a product-minded engineer and tech founder who ships real systems under real startup constraints.
That blend of perspectives surfaced the same catch-22 again and again: you need patents to raise money, but you need money to get patents. Founders either wait until investors ask—or rush a thin filing just to say “patent pending.” Either way, they lose time, pay more later, and often miss the window to lock in a strong priority date early.
When the team built Paximal’s core patent automation engine for professional-grade drafting workflows, Orfeas brought a tech-founder question: what would this look like if it were designed for early-stage builders—not law firms?
That perspective shaped Idea Clerk: Paximal’s core technology, packaged into a guided, founder-first workflow that helps startups secure an early priority date quickly and affordably—with the option to bring in trusted patent counsel when it’s time to review, refine, and file.
THE TEAM
Meet the founders
Ian Schick, Ph.D., Esq.
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
Ian is a patent attorney who practiced at Pillsbury Winthrop, where he represented leading technology companies and venture-backed startups on critical IP matters. With a technical Ph.D. and a J.D. in IP law, he co-founded Specifio, the first commercial AI patent-spec generator. As a Stanford Law Codex Fellow, he led the Machine-Generated Legal Documents project and founded the AI Subcommittee of the American IP Law Association (AIPLA).
Orfeas Magoulas
CO-FOUNDER & CTO
Orfeas is a product-minded engineer and tech founder who builds scalable software at Paximal and co-founded TrendSweep. His experience shipping products under startup constraints helped shape Idea Clerk into what founders need: a guided workflow that turns an invention description into an investor-ready provisional—without requiring founders to become patent experts. Orfeas leads the engineering behind Idea Clerk’s speed and reliability.
Zakery Tutino
CO-FOUNDER & COO
Zak has over a decade of experience building and scaling IP technology at Thomson Reuters, Clarivate, and MaxVal. As co-founder of Paximal, he helped create enterprise-grade patent automation tools now trusted by leading law firms. He also serves on the board of the U.S. Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA). Zak focuses on making complex IP systems usable and valuable for startups, ensuring founders get tools that work from day one.
Join the founders we’re building for
Protect your idea with a partner that actually speaks your language.