Edge is now easier to use with teams

This week includes updates to team management, project management, and working with disclosures

Updated teams and project management

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