‘We’ll be able to scale our business infinitely’: behind the creation of Erich Spangenberg’s digital twin Agatha

In December 2024, Erich Spangenberg returned to the patent monetization business through the launch of Sauvegarder Investment Management (SIM) IP (December 4, 2024 ip fray article). He has since made a series of acquisitions (which have since also launched enforcement campaigns) and major hires, as well as expanded into the trade secrets litigation finance space via a partnership with Tangibly (January 15, 2026 ip fray article).

In January, SIM IP also merged with patent intelligence platform Garden Intel in a deal worth over $150 million (February 6, 2026 ip fray article). They now operate together under SIM IP.

But this is all within the past 18 months – Mr. Spangenberg now holds over 20 years of successful IP dealmaking experience, including over $1 billion of licensing transactions and over $2 billion of IP-related financings. And, in a LinkedIn post last week, he announced that his company has now found a way to make that expertise “scalable, searchable, and deployable”: Project Agatha – an AI-driven digital twin of how Mr. Spangenberg communicates and thinks about IP (July 15, 2026 LinkedIn post by Erich Spangenberg).

This week, Mr. Spangenberg and Garden’s Chief Executive Officer Adi Sidapara (who came up with the idea for Agatha) sat down with ip fray to discuss how Agatha came about, why it can be trusted to guide SIM IP employees in making licensing negotiation decisions, and how the market has reacted to it so far.