Edge now solve this problem with formalize.

When you go to the Figures tab, every type of figure generation and upload is now unified.

You can now upload figures or create illustrations from scratch. This includes flow charts, text-to-image for in-use figures, and our standard formalization. Edge can also formalize line drawings and charts. No more hatching required.

When you upload an image, Edge can detect on its own whether an image is a chart or a drawing. The only time you might want to manually select it is when you have a chart that you want represented literally, such as a design for a user interface that includes a chart.

Then just wait—it usually takes 20 seconds for line drawings and 45 seconds for charts—and you have a submittable drawing.

You can also edit drawings. You can both prompt the Assistant and circle portions of the drawing.

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To start, Edge tracks three types of errors:

• Antecedent basis errors. Edge not only tracks obvious errors and obvious passes in the claims but also ambiguous cases

• Patent profanity throughout the application

• Reference errors, like referring to a figure that doesn’t exist

In our internal testing, the Edge proofreader meets or exceeds the performance of other proofreaders. On top of that, Edge’s user interface is easy to use and understand.

To access the Edge proofreader, click the “Proofreader” button on the right, next to “references.” No downloads and no fiddling with various clouds. Just a proofreader that works directly in Edge.

From there, you can view every identified error, or click on a category to filter only errors in that category.

If you have multiple errors of the same type, like multiple antecedent basis errors for the same phrase, you can see that they are grouped together with a count. You can click on the error and use the arrows to filter between them.

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Our proofreader is going to get smarter over time, adding in more error types, improving the sophistication of error checking, smarter error sorting, and correction suggestions. You can’t find a proofreader like this anywhere else and it’s just going to keep getting better.

Today we are taking a break from all of that to announce a feature that has been one of our most-requested features.

The figure editor now supports squiggles.

Edge now supports a variety of lead lines, including squiggles and underlined numbers. We will also be rolling out support for other common lead lines, like brackets.

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We also support squiggles in flow charts.

Although including the number in the figure is more common, we know that many of our customers prefer a squiggle there as well. For those who prefer an external lead line in flow charts we now support that as well.

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Keep posted; Nonobvious will be coming back with more content on patents, IP, AI and the law. And we will also provide exciting updates on Edge.

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Industry-Standard Accreditation

The SOC 2 audit is one of the highest recognized standards of information security compliance in the world. It was developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) to allow a third-party auditor to validate a service company’s internal controls with respect to information security.

We obtained our audited SOC 2 Report by partnering with Johanson Group who respectively review our internal controls including policies, procedures, and infrastructure regarding data security, firewall configurations, change management, logical access, backup management, business continuity and disaster recovery, security incident response, and other critical areas of our business.

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Our report was unqualified, meaning that there were no exceptions identified.

On top of the standard SOC 2 requirements, we added a custom control verifying that we do not train on customer data without permission. That is part of our report. We did not need to add it; in fact, it added an extra hoop for us to jump through. But it was that important for our customers to know we were keeping our promise.

Why does this matter?

Bars all over the country allow for the use of cloud software and they are increasingly coming down on the side of allowing AI software as long as appropriate precautions are taken. In fact, USPTO has even come out to say that the use of AI tools is allowed and not required to be disclosed!

Yet, all of these permissions still have a duty of care. You need to make sure your client’s data is private and that it is not being trained on to prevent regurgitation.

First, by achieving SOC 2, we remove much of the uncertainty around working with us. Not only do you know that an auditor verified our cybersecurity standards to the highest standards, you know what those standards are. This should give greater assurance to your IT teams, compliance teams, and even your insurance.

Our security

Thanks to a company-wide effort here at Edge, and with the help of our trusted partner Johanson Group, we successfully achieved SOC 2 compliance and received an Auditor’s Report, which we are happy to share with you to prove to you that our policies, procedures, and infrastructure meet or exceed the SOC 2 criteria. In fact, by partnering with Johanson Group, we can confidently say we go above and beyond the minimum requirements for SOC 2 by integrating our critical infrastructure to monitor compliance to the SOC 2 framework 24/7/365, not just during the audit window.

We believe the relationship with our customers must be built on trust. The successful completion of our SOC 2 Report is one of many ways that we have planned to earn and retain that trust.

SOC 2 is just one aspect of our growing security program. We are committed to continually improving our information security program and retaining an annual SOC 2 audit to ensure we keep supporting our customers’ needs.

If you want to try what is now the most private and secure patent platform in the market, click below.

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Traditionally, a disclosure is the result of a structured intake: the inventor fills information into a form, that is then manually turned into a disclosure document after significant practitioner time is spent interviewing the inventor. The result is manual and wastes everyone’s time.

Edge solves this problem today with its Disclosure function, which is interactive and focused on a disclosure form.

Today, our Disclosure functionality is much more interactive and flexible. And most importantly, it lets you get up and running much faster than before.

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Disclosure’s Got a New Groove

Now, starting a project with Edge is just the press of a single button, “New Project.” You will land in a page that provides several options for creating and managing Disclosures.

You are presented with four options:

1. Start Disclosure with a chat: This is an interactive, updated disclosure experience. Just upload what you have and Edge will create a disclosure for you and then ask follow up questions in a single thread.

2. Update an existing Disclosure: This allows practitioners to upload updates to a disclosure, such as a transcript or notes, and update the disclosure.

3. Upload completed Disclosure form: For high volume clients, they often have a standard disclosure form that has been completed per their standard processes. This functionality allows you to upload a completed such disclosure without any modifications or changes.

4. Start Disclosure with a form: This is our classic interactive disclosure form, complete with our interactive disclosure question generator.

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In the example below, we take a document written in German, summarize its contents in English, and answer a clarifying question.

The Assistant can process documents in DOCX and PDF format, powerpoint PPTX presentations, and JPEG and PNF format images, as well as additional context provided by explicit instruction.

Updating a disclosure works similarly; the only difference is that instead of starting from scratch, the Assistant starts from your existing disclosure and updates it.

We have many more features coming to improve Disclosure. Want to see more? Reach out for a demo.

Write better patents with Edge

For this promo, our CEO, Evan Zimmerman, is going to write a simple, yet strong, patent for a circuit that uses a control circuit to manage the current in an electronics patent in case 1(b), where there are figures and text but no reference numerals. It is taken from Martin’s set of examples. In other words, we are giving the Assistant the least amount of information it can have.

Here is a video of it working below.

The disclosure was in German, but that is no problem. Our Assistant knows most of the WIPO languages, plus a few others like Korean, so it is able to write in English without a problem from a German disclosure.

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Our Assistant successfully accomplishes in just a few minutes collectively several tasks that would have taken a significant amount time:

1. It creates a first draft of the independent claims

2. It proposes several interesting dependent claims

3. It creates a flow chart for claim 2, which is common for methods in US patents but was missing from the disclosed figures

4. It successfully deduces the labels for the circuit drawing on its own (these are very close to the reference numerals from case 1(c))

5. It creates a detailed description of both figures, and can be expanded upon with embodiments, account for additional dependent claims, adds definitions, and more

6. We are able to go from there to “clean up,” adding sections like summary, background, and abstract

The Assistant is smart enough to write with several litigation-grade details from the start. It uses embodiments, “may,” and non-limiting language. It never uses the patent profanity “invention” or “the invention” and avoids common mistake-words like “necessary.” And the background is written to avoid the types of issues that in recent years have been used to sharply limit claim scope, for example by never actually describing the invention.

Our approach with Edge is to build a beautiful, easy-to-use solution with a task-based Assistant built in. You, the patent practitioner, remain in control. 

Our Assistant aids in the creation of litigation-grade patents by getting it right the first time (or at least close to it) and decreasing the amount of time needed to get the basics out of the way so you can put in the extra time to upgrade your patents to the highest litigation grade.

Want to see more? In our class, we’re going to be going into more detail and covering another one of the examples in more depth.

See you there!

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Meet Evan, our CEO

Are you going to the AIPLA Spring Meeting or the INTA Annual Meeting?

Then come find our CEO, Evan! Just find a time on this link. You can coordinate a location together.

Using Edge, you can now create and edit flow charts with the click of a button. It’s much simpler than using a general purpose editing tool. And it requires much less work, saving you hours.

First, our AI will generate the flow chart for you. Then, you can edit it.

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Go With The Flow

Here is how it works:

1. Highlight, copy, and paste what you’d like the flow chart Assistant to use. For example, it could be a method claim or a part of the disclosure package.

2. Go to Figures and click “Generate.” Then select “flow chart”

3. Paste the text you want to be processed with AI

That’s it! Then you’ll end up in a flow chart module. Typically, this only takes a few seconds.

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From there, you can edit the flow chart. If you want to modify what the Assistant generated, you can add, move, change, or delete blocks. We support the major blocks used in flow charts, specifically step blocks and decision diamonds. You can change the step numbers in labels too, which appear in the conventional underline format.

You can also start from scratch and draw a flow chart manually. Just click “skip.”

We have much more in store for this feature. Stay tuned! And remember that it is in beta; for now, please use it for testing purposes only. It will be ready for full use soon.

Minor Update: Figure Labels for Pre-Labeled Uploads

Sometimes, you might want to upload a figure that already has labels on them. With Edge, you can now add label names without directly adding a label line.

To do that, when editing a figure, just click “add pre-made label.” That will create a number without adding a label. Please be sure to not add false pre-made labels, which will confuse the Assistant when generating a figure.

Want to see the rest of Edge? Click below to give it a spin.

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Templates

Edge supports the idea of Drafts when you are working on a matter to demarcate major milestones when you may want an inventor’s input or a colleague’s review. But oftentimes, practitioners have repetitive tasks they must attend to over and over again. It may be a high-volume client who has particular needs, a firm style that requires the use of certain boilerplate, or even an approach that must be used for certain subject matter.

To handle that, we now support templates.

To create a template, click on the 3 dots on the top right of a patent. Then, select “Save as Template” and select the name of the template. Today, it only saves the patent itself—your prior art, for example, will not be saved (like if you have certain references that are required for a template; this is on our roadmap).

To use a template, you have two options:

1. When starting a new patent from the homepage, pick a template to start from

2. Open a completed Disclosure and select the three dots you’d normally choose for a Draft; from there, select “Start from Template”

That’s it! Your template will load without issue.

Templates allow you to further personalize Edge on the firm level beyond our individual-level personalization features.

Multi-Image Description

Edge allows you to draft descriptions of Figures using our Assistant. Combined with our labeling feature, this can cut hours from the process of drafting a spec.

However, up until now, Edge only allowed you to describe a single Figure at a time. Of course, practitioners will often describe multiple figures at once—for example, comparing and contrasting different views of the same embodiment, or combining a system diagram and a flow chart to describe a system that enables a method or process. You would have to create that version yourself.

As of today, Edge allows you to now describe multiple figures at once. The Assistant will combine multiple Figures and describe them in a single, integrated subsection. All you do is invoke the Assistant and select the option to describe multiple figures, not just one. Then select the Figures you want the Assistant to write about. Then, just let it rip like you would for a single Figure.

Note that you will get better results if you tell the Assistant what you want it to do with the multiple figures. Although not required, this is more helpful for a multi-figure comparison than for a single-figure description.

Note that this feature is meant to describe figures that belong together. It is not intended to ingest all figures and produce a complete spec. For that, it is still advised to do each Figure or Figure-grouping once at a time so that you can review the results and craft a narrative for your individual application.

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Want to give Edge a try? Fill out our contact form and we will respond within 24 hours.

Edge is a cloud-based system, so it backs up your data every few seconds. But now with Edge, you can now demarcate drafts with our versioning feature. This adds on to our mission to create the easiest-to-use, yet most powerful, editor available for patents.

Drafts with Edge

Creating a draft is easy. On the top left, you will see an indicator that says “latest version.” This tells you which draft you are looking at. If you look at a previous draft, this indicator will change.

When you press the status indicator, a sidebar will pop up with all your previous drafts. Just click the draft and you will enter read-only mode on that draft. Everything will revert, including the figures, bibliographic data, and more.

Similarly, if you would like to cut a new version, just press the “new draft” button. Then you just enter a new name and that is it. By default, the draft will be named by the date.

New Assistant Commands

On top of versions, Edge Assistant now includes several new commands. We are frequently investing in new Assistant features.

Tables

Edge has the easiest to use tables of any drafting software, period. But what if you want to make a table that contains a lot of content? Wouldn’t it be nice if the Assistant could do it for you?

We now offer that functionality pre-built. You can highlight body text to create a table summarizing or adding on to the contents in the paragraph. You can also create a table from scratch by describing what you’d like the Assistant to make and pressing Command-K in a new line; for example, “create a table of common stochastic functions with a column for the name and another column with the formula.”

Embodiments

Oftentimes, practitioners will want to add short embodiments. For example, describing a figure with an optional component, describing potential variations of a method, or applications of a drug. These embodiments often contain long lists and be quite tedious to draft, sometimes requiring a half hour of research to draft.

Edge is making those embodiments easier to work with than ever. Just highlight the text of the embodiment you want to modify and the Assistant will draft a candidate for you, based on your instructions and its knowledge of patents and the world of science and engineering. You can also ask it to create a paragraph without being anchored in specific text, like “Create a paragraph describing 100 potential cancers this formulation can work with,” by pressing Command-K in a new line.

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Want to give Edge a try? Fill out our contact form and we will respond within 24 hours.

Recently, we launched our first prior art tool to generate citations. This week, we will help you get more value out of your prior art citations, as well as your bibliographic data.

Form Generation

Edge supports the ability to generate ADS, IDS, and provisional patent cover sheets forms. It uses the information already contained in your project. It will also use Bibliographic Data as appropriate (more on that in the next section).

To create these forms, you will go to the patent page of your project and look at the top left, just above the table of contents. You will then see a button that says “export documents” along with the option for a dropdown.

Currently, Edge can create the following documents:

1. A standard patent document in the official USPTO format

2. The USPTO ADS

3. The USPTO IDS

4. The USPTO provisional cover sheet

Please note that Edge will fill the forms out to the best of its ability. For example, if you would like to request not to publish the application under 35 U.S.C. § 122(b), you will still need to check that box yourself on the form. Note that, for now, you will also have to collect signatures yourself and submit it to USPTO through the official Patent Center website.

For now, although Edge supports multiple languages from German to Korean, the form automation is USPTO-only. Stay tuned, both for more USPTO forms as well as for forms from other jurisdictions.

Bibliographic Data

Edge now also tracks your bibliographic data. When an inventor fills out a questionnaire, that information is now automatically captured and moved over to the Bibliographic tab. You can also add relevant information like assignees. Edge will use this information when filling out the ADS and IDS forms, as well as other forms as Edge builds out its automations.

Looking forward, you can also expect Edge to create more automations based on jurisdiction, prosecution stage, and more, both on the form automation and project management side. We’d love your feedback as we build these features out.

If you aren’t already a customer of Edge, sign up to get more patent goodness and maximize your quality and speed.

Prior Art Management

Edge now supports prior art management. If you look at a patent, on the top line, you will now see Prior Art alongside Patent, Disclosure, and Figures. That is where you will go to manage your prior art options.

Here is how you add prior art:

1. Click “Add Prior Art”

2. If the prior art is eligible, you can enter its ID and Edge will automatically find it and format the citation for you. Supported prior art includes:

   1. Patents: Enter the patent number

   2. Books: Enter the ISBN (ISBN-10 and -13 both work)

3. Approve the citation

Once these steps are completed, you will have your prior art ready to go. Today, prior art is all formatted in style requested in the USPTO IDS.

Later this week, we will also support Journal articles via DOI and working papers via arXiv link. You will also be able to enter custom citations.

Most importantly, we are continuing to improve the Assistant’s knowledge of the prior art that you give it, which it will consider while drafting claims. This will allow further personalization for your application.

Some upcoming features to look forward to with prior art include:

• What usually goes after uploading prior art? Well, typically it is the laborious process of generating an IDS. Stay tuned. Edge already supports exporting patent applications in the USPTO format.

• You will also soon be able to upload PDFs of prior art that is not public or is paywalled for your Assistant to use. Remember that Edge does not train on your data to create models, and that includes any prior art you upload. The Assistant will only be able to use the prior art for the specific application you upload it to and will not learn off of uploaded PDFs because we consider that your confidential information.

• In the future, you will be able to select between multiple default styles for citations

New Language: Korean

Edge now supports Korean! 우리는 당신을 봉사하기를 기대합니다.

To select Korean, go to your language settings and select Korean.

Edge now supports languages in your system.

Previously, we shipped beta support for languages for the Assistant. Today, we are are also shipping support for changing the system language. This means that the buttons and text of the web app will be whatever you select.

By default, Edge will correspond to the language setting of your browser. But if you want the language to be something else, you can go to the personalization page and change it.

You can access this setting from the profile personalization page. We currently support English, German, French, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese (Simplified).

Better table editing

Edge has the easiest to use tables available. We have also improved the experience of editing tables.

If you highlight more than two cells in a row, an option will appear to delete that row. Similarly, if you highlight more than two cells in a column, an option will appear to delete that column. If you select a rectangle, you will be given the option to delete all rows and columns.

To delete a table, highlight the entire table and press backspace.

Updates to the assistant

We have prioritized support in our Assistant for figures, which are one of the most important and tedious parts of patents. You can already ask the Assistant to write a detailed description of your figure. Now, you can also ask the Assistant to write a brief description of a figure in the Brief Description of Figures section.

We also shipped several updates to the Assistant that fixed bugs relating to formatting.

Interested? Reach out and sign up today.

Assistant Personalization

Edge now supports Assistant personalization. To get there, click your initials on the top right and go to your profile.

In addition to personalizing your name and location, you can personalize the Assistant. All you have to do is describe anything you care for the assistant to know. It is very easy to use.

First, you can personalize by telling the Assistant about your areas of expertise. It works best when you include:

1. Your education, such as degrees obtained

2. Whether you know a lot about patent law, or any particular areas you focus on

3. Specific subjects you may be an expert in

4. Specific areas you may not be an expert in

This feature applies not only to practitioners but also inventors who may be on the platform as a client or for our in-house product.

There are more features around the corner that will use this information, so stay tuned!

You can also personalize the drafting style. The Assistant will take your preferences into account when writing. The more specific you are, the more the Assistant will understand the requirements and take them into account. There is no limit, so you can give only two instructions or you can give fifty instructions.

By default, the Assistant will run the house style if you do not fill out any personalization. You do not need to personalize the Edge Assistant for it to work.

We are also working on tools to allow the Assistant to make suggestions for your personal style based on your past work or to comply with firm rules. Stay tuned!

Multiple Languages

We have had multiple requests for language support. And so today, Edge is shipping support for multiple languages in Beta.

When you start a disclosure, you can select the language for the patent. Today, we support German, French, Chinese, Japanese, and of course English.

When you select a language for an application, the Assistant will output that language. Note that the Assistant will also expect input in that language. We are still working out the kinks, but we are sharing it with you today to start trying out!

We also update the Edge system’s language itself; this is done automatically based on your browser’s automatic settings. So for example, if your system level was Spanish, the upload button would read “subir” instead of “upload.”

Please reach out to sign up for Edge or give us feedback!

At Edge, we’re ringing in the new year with a new feature: tables.

Tables are an essential part of certain types of patents, like chemistry patents, that must convey information in a condensed and systematic format. Creating tables can be a pain, as can formatting them for USPTO. With Edge, we are solving that problem.

Here is how you create a table:

1. Right click and select “Insert table”

2. Start filling in the table

3. You can add a row or column by going to the end and clicking “+”

Just like that, easier than any doc editor. Plus, when you edit the table, you can see the table lines for easy editing.

Our tables support all formatting types, including LaTeX and chemical structures. The first row is already set up for the column headers. Your table will also export properly formatted for USPTO.

Edge automatically numbers and labels your table for you. And because a table is a reference, you get all the benefits of references in Edge with tables. That includes appearing in the reference tab, click to preview, and reference tracking.

And the Assistant knows how to read tables too, so it becomes part of the Assistant’s toolkit as well.

One more thing. If you have a table you’ve already created in Excel, you can copy it and paste directly in Edge. We will format it and label it automatically. This includes not only the table formatting but also special characters, like math.

Let us know what you think!

If you want the best table editing experience ever, and much more, reach out to schedule a demo.

This week, we are announcing the launch of chemical formula support. We already support special input types like mathematical formulas via LaTeX. And now we support chemistry. Chemical formulas are essential for patents that involve chemical composition of matter, Markush groups, most pharmaceuticals, and more. And we have heard from many chemistry-minded patent practitioners of the difficulties they have had transferring chemical drawings into patent applications.

Now, it is easier than ever. Here is how it works:

1. Get the chemical formula you want to import. The easiest way to do this is to draw as you normally would in an editor like ChemDraw and then export the drawing.

2. Formats: Edge supports codes in SMILES, MOL, and MOL3000.

3. Paste the code in a new paragraph.

4. Highlight the code and click the Benzene ring. Edge will automatically detect whether the code is a SMILES, MOL, or MOL3000 and render appropriately on its own; no need to specify.

5. You will see a preview of the chemical drawing. Please note that the tool will only render valid chemical formulas. If you want to change the chemical that is displayed, you can change the code, but not the drawing, which is rendered by the code. You also cannot change the code type, for example from SMILES to MOL3000. If you want to change the rendering type, cancel the drawing and paste a new drawing in.

6. Press “accept” and your chemical drawing will be entered!

That’s it! By using the chemical drawing function, Edge will also know about the chemical, which it uses to write better text.

As an additional added benefit, Edge also automatically manages the exporting of the chemical formula in a patent application in an accurate fashion. Just like with mathematical formulas, we will export your chemical formulas in the format USPTO expects.

In addition to this new feature, this week we also improved the performance of our Editor in the Safari Browser, fixing 7 minor bugs. We still recommend using Edge in Google Chrome, but the Safari experience should be greatly improved.

We wish you a restful final week of 2023. We expect to kick off 2024 with yet more exciting features.

Happy holidays!

Edge works with a unique editor that is designed for patents, from easy figure editing to project management features. But when it comes time to file, USPTO doesn’t accept an Edge file (yet). It only accepts a .docx file and is publishing the new rules on January 17, 2024. Although you are allowed to include a backup PDF, USPTO charges a surcharge for non-.docx submissions, and they are steep—$400 for large entities and $250 for pro hac vice submissions.

To make matters worse, it is not enough to just export to a .docx file and be done with it. USPTO has promulgated specific guidelines for the desired format. They also have published a specific .docx format with special coding inside. If you do not export in this specific format, you can break some of USPTO’s automations, which may cause a delay in processing your filing. That’s a bad look for your clients.

In other words, to remain in compliance, you must learn a new skill and keep up to date with formatting requirements. Neither of those are part of the job of a patent attorney.

We are solving that problem. Edge’s .docx export outputs your patent application in the USPTO-specific .docx file and in accordance with the USPTO-required formatting rules. We make sure to only export a file name that complies with USPTO regulations. (Yes, those exist!)

To export your file, just click the “Export” button on top of the table of contents of the body of your draft.

This is one of the many reasons that Edge stands above its competitors. Although some of them may support exporting a .docx file, you might have to reformat it into the USPTO format, adding extra time and complexity. With Edge, it just works.

Edge also supports special technical formatting. For example, Edge supports LaTeX in its editor for math functions. When you export to .docx, Edge automatically formats the math functions in the USPTO-prescribed formatting, even with the correct font, so that you do not have to do any extra work to prepare your application. We will be shipping several chemistry-specific features soon and those will comply with USPTO requirements as well.

Organization in the Editor

Our Editor is the main interface for your patent. So we made our Editor easier to use than before.

Now, all of the formatting functions are more organized in a ribbon. Just highlight the text you want to edit and you can choose from common functions, like bold, header, and a list.

Math equations

We’ve also added a technical feature: equations! The equations work with LaTeX formatting.

You can now add equations in one of two ways:

1. Type “$”, then type the equation, then type another “$” and press space. The LaTeX will format automatically.

2. Write the equation in LaTeX but without the dollar signs. You can highlight the equation and press the “f(x)” button, which will automatically turn it into a formula.

3. If it doesn’t render, that isn’t a bug; it means there is a LaTeX error that must be corrected

References

We have also made significant improvements to references.

Before, you needed to use the “@” tag to invoke a reference. Now, a reference will automatically be created when you type “claim 1,” “figure 2A,” and even labels for figures. This also applies to multiple items, like “Figures 2A and 2B” or “Claims 1-4.”

You can also click or hover over a reference to see what it contains. This makes patent drafts far easier to read.

Lastly, we have added the ability to add a second viewing column.

Here’s how:

1. Press “references” on the right

2. A tray will pop out with claims and figures

3. View whatever you need while drafting

4. If you want to view the labels on a figure, click on that figure

Improvements to disclosures

Disclosures are an important part of the patent process, and we have made several improvements to the Edge disclosure tool.

Appendix

Edge now supports an Appendix in its disclosure tool.

If you look at the section list on the left, you will now see a section called “Appendix.” The Appendix contains the files an inventor might add at the bottom of the disclosure form.

If you go to the Appendix you can not only see a list of files, along with any notes on those files, but you can also see previews of images. If you have upload a schematic, for example, you can view those images easily while reviewing the disclosure itself.

Export to .docx

You can now export the disclosure to a .docx format! While you could already share an Edge disclosure to a teammate, you might want to send it in other circumstances. For example, you might not want to connect with a client directly on the platform.

To do so, press the “Download” button on the left. You will get a .zip file that contains all of the disclosure material in a .docx format, as well as any files in the Appendix.

Writing a patent is an inherently collaborative process. Patent attorneys must work with inventors (and, as applicable, their employers). And most patent practitioners do their jobs in teams with other patent practitioners.

This week’s big update to Edge is making that part of the process, specifically working with teams, that much easier.

Project management

Patents go through a lifecycle. Today, we have introduced some tools to make it easy to manage and collaborate on a project.

Every project is now assigned a status. To change the status:

1. Go to the projects page

2. Click the “…” button on the project you want to update

3. Hover over “Set status”

4. Click on the status you want to assign

5. It will automatically update for you and all teammates with access to the project

We are going to build more patent-specific project management features over time. But for now, Edge is the only tool that lets you manage your patent as you’re drafting it.

Team management

Edge now supports teams! This helps patent firms that want to purchase multiple licenses at once get up and running. It also means that you can use Edge alongside your inventors in a collaborative way.

Teams are divided into two classes:

1. Admins are able to see and edit everything on a team. Examples of people with this role include senior partners, firm owners, in-house counsel.

2. Members are able to only contribute to specific projects they’ve been invited to. Examples of people with this role include clients, associates, or contributing outside counsel

More management features are in the works!

To add a team member to a project:

1. Go to the projects page

2. Press “…” on a project

3. Press “Share”

4. You can search for anyone in your organization in the search box

5. You can also manage the people in a project. Admins can turn non-admins into members or members into admins. You can also remove someone’s access from a project

Updates to the disclosure tool

One of the most important parts of a patent is the disclosure. Our Assistant can not only help you draft a patent—it can also help you write a disclosure. This week, our disclosure tool became much easier to use.

The Assistant’s follow up questions now show up in cards. This is an easier format for Q&A and makes the synthesis more efficient.

Here is how to use this feature:

1. Press the Assistant button on each disclosure form question, just like before

2. The questions will be asked sequentially. Answer as you normally would, and when you’re satisfied with your answer, click “done”

3. If you think a question isn’t applicable, press “skip”

4. When you are ready to synthesize a new answer, press “Merge results” on the bottom

We’ve also made the inventor section of the assistant more efficient. Now, instead of a fixed number of inventors, you can add and remove any number of inventors.

Here are the steps to use this feature:

1. On the inventor section of the disclosure form, press “Add another”

2. Another inventor section will appear! Just enter the name of an inventor

3. If you need to remove an inventor, press “Remove”

4. There always needs to be at least one inventor on a disclosure form

Now, we are proud to announce a major update that brings those two elements together.

We are introducing two new features: AI-image generation and AI-assisted figure descriptions. Let’s dive in.

AI-image generation

The world has been captivated by DALL-E and Midjourney. After all, patent draftspeople can cost a fortune at scale and delay a patent application by weeks, affecting your priority date.

A number of our users have reached out wondering when they would get the same functionality in Edge.

That day is today.

We’re proud to announce our text-to-image generator. It works very simply:

1. In the figures tab, instead of pressing “upload,” press “generate” instead

2. Type what you want to see in a textbox. More descriptive is better. Note that we have designed it to do what is needed, so don’t try to prompt engineer. Just describe plainly what you want the image to do

3. Wait a bit and in about a minute (sometimes less), you will get four images to choose from that are USPTO submission-ready. We will automatically color-adjust to make sure it is perfectly black-and-white

This image generator is best used for conceptual or demonstrative figures. For now, the Generate tool will not generate formulaic figures, like flowcharts or chemicals with Markush groups. But don’t worry, we’re already looking into that!

As for CAD drawings, you cannot yet upload them and get a line drawing out. However, note that most CAD drawings will do that for you. For those types of drawings, we recommend using the export line drawing functionality most CAD software supports and uploading it to Edge to start annotating with our labeling tool.

Detailed description for figures

Edge’s Assistant is getting more capable every week. This week, we shipped the first of our Assistant functionality for figures. We have much more in the pipeline, but we saved the best for first: you can generate detailed descriptions of drawings.

Our written description tool allows you to select a figure and ask the Assistant to generate a full written description. It will use every label in the proper format. (Soon, it will also create them with “@” tags, just like with claims.) The Assistant also has the context of the disclosure and the claims to know what the technology does as well as what it has to enable.

Here is how to access this command:

1. Go to the Detailed Description section

2. Press command-k to invoke the assistant

3. Select “Generate written description of a figure”, and add any additional instructions if you have them

4. Select the figure you want to describe

5. The Assistant will generate a full written description for you

That’s it! There’s much more coming down the pike for the Assistant when it comes to figures. We know it is one of the most painful, time-consuming parts of enabling claims.

We are going to go over a number of new pre-made assistant features, leaps in usability, and the ability to ask Edge anything.

Assistant improvements

Our assistant is now way more powerful. But that’s not all. It’s also way easier to use.

Edge’s assistant now highlights text as it is being generated. You can then decide whether you want to accept, reject, or regenerate it instead of automatically inserting it in the body of the patent. If you want the regeneration to occur with specific instructions, you can do that as well. (If you have a version you like and want to edit it, you should accept it and then edit it further.)

On top of that, if you choose to try another version, you can easily flip between multiple options to compare before you select which one go to with.

You’ll also notice that the assistant automatically inserts references. It won’t just say “Claim 1” but actually insert an auto-updating reference with our “@” tag feature. That way, if you make a change like deleting a claim, the assistant-generated text will remain consistent.

New writing powers

Edge’s assistant was previously empowered to help you draft your claims.

Edge is now able to create several major types of content. The assistant can now write the summary, abstract, field, background, and claims.

You can also give specific instructions when using one of our commands. Normally, you would just click on a command after pressing command-k. Instead, type your additional instructions in the text box, click the command you want to use, and let it rip.

Hint: next week’s new commands will relate to the detailed description.

But what if you want to edit your work, or work with the assistant free-form? Read on.

Free-form assistance

Edge now supports free-form writing. Unlike with our built-in commands, the assistant does not know what to do by default; you have to tell the assistant what you want. What it does do is write like a patent attorney, so you don’t need to “prompt engineer.” Just tell it what you want to do.

You can call up the assistant and ask it to generate arbitrary text. For example, suppose you want to create a boilerplate embodiment paragraph but know that it may be lengthy. You can use the assistant to save you time and draft the paragraph itself.

You can also make changes based on specific text. Just highlight text to ask the assistant to edit text or add on to text.

Editing text modifies the existing text. You need to tell the assistant specifically what you want to change and it will do so. This is a good use case, for example, if you see a short figure description you want to change.

Adding on to text adds additional text to the patent with the highlighted text as additional context. So for example, if you want to add multiple dependent claims to an independent claim, highlight the independent claim and tell it what you want it to do.