:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       caaeee11-ba6f-5566-aecd-f171b4c459c0
:END:
#+title: Patent Strategy
#+filetags: :passepartout:ip:patents:legal:

**Likely patentable:**
- Probabilistic-deterministic split with deterministic gates between LLM proposal and execution (vs every competitor using prompt-based guardrails)
- Foveal-peripheral context model with Org-tree structured retrieval (targets 2,000-4,000 tokens)
- Merkle-tree memory with copy-on-write snapshots and operation-level undo/redo
- Gate-to-fact bootstrap with sufficiency criterion (mechanically extracting facts from gate stack data structures)
- Macro-layer-as-skill bootstrapping architecture (theorem-proving as hot-reloadable skills)

**Likely not patentable (known techniques):**
- ACL2 itself (decades old)
- Screamer for consistency checking (obvious application)
- Hot-reloadable skills (40 years old)
- Org-mode as a data format

**Strongest single claim:** The specific combination of probabilistic model + deterministic zero-token safety gates + Merkle memory + symbolic engine with sufficiency criterion. Each element is known; the combination is novel and non-obvious.

**Counterargument:** A patent examiner will argue these are standard OS microkernel architecture, locality of reference, content-addressed storage, and capability-based security applied to an AI agent. The defense: they have never been *combined* in an AI agent, producing emergent effects no single principle produces.

See also: [[file:licensing.org][Licensing]], [[file:moats.org][Moats]]