Get clear on your patent before you hire an attorney

Describe your technical solution below. See whether it’s worth filing, which angles it could be claimed from, and what still needs testing — then take a complete draft to your patent attorney.

How it fits togetherThree steps: is it worth doing, which direction to take it, then turn it into a filing draft.

Not sure where to start? Start at step one and describe your solution in a sentence — sign-up includes two runs, and results take a few minutes.

51M+ real, searchable patentsYour data is never used for AI trainingCovering CNIPA, USPTO, EPO, JPO and KIPONew users get 25 free creditsPrivacy Policy

Plates

Great inventions all began as patents

FIG. 1 — Edison's Electric LampUS 223,898 · 1880

FIG. 2 — Bell's TelephonyUS 174,465 · 1876

FIG. 3 — Tesla's Electro-Magnetic MotorUS 381,968 · 1888

FIG. 4 — The Wright Flying MachineUS 821,393 · 1906

FIG. 5 — Goddard's Rocket ApparatusUS 1,102,653 · 1914

FIG. 6 — Shockley's TransistorUS 2,569,347 · 1951

FIG. 7 — The First BarcodeUS 2,612,994 · 1952

FIG. 8 — The Laser (Optical Maser)US 2,929,922 · 1960

FIG. 9 — Robotic Surgery SystemUS 5,762,458 · 1998

FIG. 10 — Apple's Handheld DesignUS D618,677 · 2010

FIG. 11 — CRISPR-Cas9 Gene EditingUS 8,697,359 · 2014

FIG. 12 — DJI Aerial VehicleUS 9,284,049 · 2016

Drawings from published patent documents; color and motion are presentation renderings.

What each one does

Three tools, one at a time

2 free uses

First, see whether this can be written up as a patent

Describe your technology and get five filing directions in minutes: each with a proposed patent title, one line on what it protects, and whether it can be drafted as it stands, needs recasting, or cannot be filed. No prior-art search is run — this answers whether it can be filed, not whether it is new.

[1001]Five directions, each pointing at the span of your own material it came from
[1002]Three verdicts, each with an action: draft it, reword it, or protect it another way
[1003]Judged under Chinese, US or European rules — the three draw the line differently

Filing directionsSample

Overall verdictNeeds recasting

Closed-loop mold-temperature control method: Ready to draft
Training method for a line-defect detection model: Needs recasting
Snap-fit folding structure for a reusable crate: Ready to draft

No prior-art search was run — this answers whether it can be filed, not whether it is new.

FIG. 1 — Filing directions (illustrative)

From 5 credits

Where to take it next, with patent data as ammunition

Turn the direction you already have into an R&D roadmap: which directions are still open, what to validate next, and what counts as validated. This is a research roadmap, not a patent application.

[2001]Anything you have not actually done is left blank and marked "to be validated" — never invented for you
[2002]Each direction says why it is worth trying and where it is likely to stall
[2003]You can carry the search results from the previous step straight in

R&D roadmapSample

Direction 1: make the feedback interval vary with load instead of holding it fixed
Existing art all uses a fixed interval, so there may be room here.
Direction 2: replace multi-point sampling with one sensor plus a model
Saves two sensors, but how much accuracy is lostTo be validated

Validate next

Compare overshoot between the two feedback-interval strategies under a sudden load change.

FIG. 2 — R&D roadmap (illustrative)

20 credits

Turn the work you have done into a full first-draft application

With the direction settled and the measurements in hand, the material becomes a complete first draft — claims, description, drawing descriptions and abstract. A machine-check report ships with it, listing what still needs human verification, for your patent attorney to review before anything is filed.

[3001]Claims, description, drawing descriptions and abstract, all in one pass
[3002]Figures that cannot be derived from your input are left blank — no invented experimental data
[3003]Ships with a machine-check report listing must-verify and should-verify items

ClaimsSample

1. A temperature control device comprising a chamber, a temperature sampling unit disposed within said chamber, and a control unit coupled to said temperature sampling unit, characterised in that said control unit is configured to adjust the feedback interval of the heating power in dependence on the outputs of said temperature sampling unit at a plurality of successive sampling instants…

value to be supplied

Machine-check report

Lists must-verify and should-verify items for your attorney to review.

FIG. 3 — First-draft application (illustrative)