Interview: How Budde Schou Patent Attorneys Use Qthena to Improve Work Quality and Reduce Costs

During Qthena Connect in Copenhagen, we had the opportunity to speak with Steen Wadskov-Hansen, CEO at Budde Schou, one of Scandinavia’s long-standing full-service IP law firms.

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Steen shared how Qthena has become a daily tool for patent attorneys across the firm, supporting workflows from patent searches and drafting to prosecution and enforcement. He also discussed why Budde Schou chose Qthena, highlighting two key drivers: improving efficiency and, above all, enhancing the quality of its IP services.

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Could you briefly introduce yourself and your company?

My name is Steen Wadskov-Hansen. I am a patent attorney with over 25 years of experience in our organization.

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How is Qthena used within your organization?

Qthena is used by all patent attorneys on a daily basis. I think it's probably the first tool that people turn to when they get in in the morning - apart from our let's say docketing system and the email. So it's a daily use tool. It's used in all workflows that you'd have in a normal patent agency. It's used for searching. It's used for drafting patent applications. It's used in prosecution as a supportive tool. It's also now being used in enforcement, in the sense of providing input. But again, as always, the human has to interact with that to provide advice at the end of the day.

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What was your process for selecting an AI solution, and what criteria led you to choose Qthena?

Our process was I'd say that we concluded within the partner group in Budde Schou that if we wanted to continue to be a relevant partner for our clients, we had to also make use of AI for several reasons. One was that we could see that of course, using tools like this effectively, you could to a certain extent reduce costs. Another thing which is more important to us actually is that the tools can be used to improve quality. So we looked at different tools, tested different tools and eventually ended up choosing Qthena because we thought that Qthena was the best tool for providing both the leverage as regards cost but also the leverage as regards quality.

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Could you share some indicators or examples of the results you have already achieved or expect to achieve with Qthena?

I can say that at least: what we've seen is that the number of people assisting the attorneys in their daily work has gone down. If you look at the quantum of assistance compared to the number of attorneys, that's already gone down. We're looking into hiring more attorneys than administrative and supportive staff going forward. So on the general level that reduces costs as far as specific work products are concerned.

I think we're probably still in the learning curve, but I can definitely see that as far as more analytical type work, that's really becoming more effective. As for using that analytical output to provide advice and work more effectively, I think that's an area where we're still learning, partly because human involvement is still necessary. So I'm positive this will improve going forward.

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About Budde Schou

Budde Schou is one of Scandinavia’s established full-service firms of IP Attorneys, providing advice and assistance to national and international corporate clients across the full range of intellectual property rights. Its services include patent, trademark, design, and utility model prosecution, IP strategy, IP analyses, prior art searches, IP watches, due diligence, validity and infringement opinions, licensing, and litigation support. Learn more about Budde Schou.

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About Qthena

Qthena is a legal-grade AI platform designed for IP and legal professionals working on complex, document-heavy workflows. Unlike generic AI chat tools, Qthena combines purpose-built AI skills, advanced document understanding, structured project workspaces, assistant-led interaction, and dedicated review tools in one unified environment.

Users can work directly with AI assistants or manage more complex matters inside Qthena’s project-based Digital Workspace, where documents, chats, annotations, analysis, and workflow-specific tools remain connected.

Qthena is built to help professionals move from information overload to high-quality outputs faster, supporting use cases across patent prosecution, oppositions, portfolio review, claim analysis, trademark matters, and broader legal knowledge work.

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