Ready for Tomorrow: 3L Nicholas Nguyen creates AI solution to help inventors navigate patent risk 

This is a headshot of 3L Nicholas Nguyen.

After building a patent risk tool in AI Bootcamp, 3L Nicholas Nguyen gained a new perspective on how the technology can expand access to legal knowledge and support.

  • 3L Nicholas Nguyen developed an AI tool in UC Law SF’s AI-Enabled Lawyers Bootcamp to help inventors assess patent risk. 
  • He learned how AI can support more efficient legal analysis while still requiring human judgment and due diligence. 
  • The experience shifted his perspective on AI’s potential to make legal knowledge and insight more accessible. 

 

As artificial intelligence reshapes legal practice, UC Law San Francisco is training students through a hands-on AI-Enabled Lawyers Bootcamp that moves them beyond theory and into real-world application before they graduate. Students gain direct experience using AI for core lawyering tasks—research, drafting, discovery, and document analysis—while engaging with ethical issues around privilege, conflicts, and professional responsibility. In a capstone project, they build their own AI tools, often with little or no coding experience. 

Offered for the first time this spring, AI Bootcamp is part of UC Law SF’s technology law and lawyering center, LexLab, led by Director Drew Amerson. The eight-session course was conceived by Director of Applied Innovation Tal Niv and taught by Adjunct Professors Luis Villa and Zoe Dolan ’05—practicing attorneys with deep experience integrating technology into legal work. 

Below, 3L Nicholas Nguyen explains how he built an AI tool to help inventors assess patent risk and what he learned from the experience. 

Why did you enroll in AI Bootcamp?   

I wanted to better understand AI’s capabilities and the underlying principles that guide the system’s responses to our prompts. Furthermore, I wanted to strengthen my ability to use AI in my own practice and become fluent in its use. Considering that I was once a skeptic when I learned of its existence and rapid growth, I knew that I needed to learn about it, or at least understand it, before deciding whether to incorporate it into my practice.  

What were your biggest takeaways?    

I learned how it could be used to empower those without the education or resources needed to advocate for themselves. For example, I can go on YouTube and watch video tutorials on how to prepare a specific dish and learn to cook or master certain techniques, which reduces the need for formal training. Here, the biggest takeaway was how people can use it to engage and create advocacy for themselves, especially when they might not understand the procedures and pathways to representation, which can be time-consuming or expensive. Accessibility is an equitable way to help people reach places they otherwise couldn’t, and I think AI has impacted how legal representation is conducted now and has allowed non-lawyers or pro se litigants to present their best case to assert their claim or protect their right.   

Describe your capstone project. 

I evaluated Claude’s proficiency in reviewing patent claims by creating claim charts for a freedom-to-operate analysis, which would alert inventors if their invention could infringe existing patents or technologies. This early due diligence practice can prevent lawsuits down the road and inform inventors how to better protect their invention from inadvertently infringing others’ patent rights. 

How will this experience shape your work as a new attorney? 

I believe AI won’t replace all jobs but will assist us in completing a task, taking us 40-60% through while leaving us to check over and complete the rest. We still need to do our own research, due diligence, and analysis. From this course, I’ve learned that AI helps me become more well-rounded and concise in my work. It can offer new perspectives or expand my research scope to find solutions. I look forward to applying what I’velearned and sharing it so others can also become AI-enabled and remain curious about future tech innovations.  

The Ready for Tomorrow series highlights UC Law SF students as they share how the College’s innovative, hands-on programs prepare them for a profession being rapidly reshaped by AI and emerging technologies.