We are happy to announce the first 2024 release of ClaimMaster that includes new features, many key improvements, and a number of fixes for the reported issues. In particular, we’ve added several new features for Generative AI drafting, such as using GPT to write description from existing figures and ability to utilize locally installed LLMs, enabled downloading of machine translations from EPO, improved UI for reporting, and much more. Read on for detailed explanations below.
New GenAI Patent Drafting Features (+Drafting)
This release introduces a number of cool improvements to our GenAI/LLM capabilities. ClaimMaster now lets you draft figure descriptions from supplied figures using GPT’s latest vision models. This works not only for EE/CS and mechanical arts, but also may be useful for BioChem and other technologies. You can read the more detailed review of our testing and best practices for getting high-quality results from GPT in this blog article.
In addition, we’ve enabled running of our patent drafting tools using locally installed LLMs, such as the ones provided by LM Studio and others. Unlike GPT services from OpenAI and Azure, these local LLMs run completely locally on your machine and do not transmit any data to the cloud from your computer, mooting various IP confidentiality issues. While running LLMs locally is slower and generates less finessed text than OpenAI GPT, for many cases it can be “good enough,” especially when used for re-writing existing text. Note that at the time of this blog post, we could not verify the exact licensing details for commercial use with LM Studio authors, so you may need to contact them directly if installing in work environment.
For more information about the use of GPT/LLMs in ClaimMaster, please watch this video (select HD for best viewing results).
Here are some helpful step-by-step tutorial for the new features.
English Translations Downloading
Based on popular demand, ClaimMaster’s Batch Download tool now also lets you batch download machine English translations of national publications from EPO’s Espacenet. Such translations satisfy IDS requirements for non-English publications. To enable translation downloads, check the “Download English translations” checkbox in the tool and select whether to download either just abstracts or full applications that contain the translated abstract, description, and claims. Note that Espacenet only makes machine translations available for non-English national patent publications, not EP or WO publications, which are already in English. In addition, to access the translation service, you have to provide the right kind code for the publication, so in case where you list publications with kind codes, ClaimMaster will try cycling its request from Espacenet through the most common codes in an effort to get the translation for your number. We’ve also added a filter in the Batch Download tool to quickly filter the list of items in the download list by type (e.g., US pubs or foreign pubs only).
OA Analysis and Shells (+Shells)
The 2024 release adds many improvements to the Office Action analysis and Shell generation tools. For example, we’ve improved identification of full NPL names in Office Actions. We’ve also started detecting and flagging various issues in Office Actions, such as objections to drawings/specification, inherency arguments, Official Notices taken by examiners, 112(6) paragraph statements, and other pertinent items. In addition, we we’ve improved shell generation, allowing you to keep the same fonts/formatting from original claim documents when inserting claims into the new shell.
We also made it easier to import new shells into ClaimMaster from a directory. Now you can simply point ClaimMaster to a directory containing new or updated shells and ClaimMaster will automatically import and configure all .dotx files in the directory as OA shells, so you don’t have to add shells one by one.
We’ve also added the ability to provide more detailed instructions to GPT for summarizing Office Actions:
Finally, we’ve added a number of new replacement fields for OA shells, including separate 112, 1st para. and 112, 2nd para. rejection summaries, as well as new Executive Summary table with prior art links to Google patents that you can insert into your shells with [OASUMMARYTABLE] field.
Report Results Filtering
This release also make it easier to review results in the task pane and hide items that you do not consider relevant. If there is a particular result (e.g., a reporting missing antecedent basis item) that you want to remove from view or document highlighting, you can simply right click on that item and select to remove the result from the view, either globally or just for that particular claim. You can disable the “hide” filter at any time, allowing you to view all previously hidden items.
Settings Import from Backup
To simplify import of previously configured settings after reinstallations (e.g., shell configurations, claim rules, groups, etc.), ClaimMaster now lets you selectively import specific settings from previously backed up setting files. The import feature is available directly from the left bottom corner of the Preferences window.
New USPTO Forms (+Shells)
We’ve also enabled filling out of ADS and RCE forms with bibliographic information for electronic submission via Patent Center. These forms are Adobe Lifecycle forms that require special handing, but you can now populate them with bibliographic data from within ClaimMaster. Note that you’ll need Adobe Acrobat to further edit these forms once they are generated from ClaimMaster, as Adobe Reader disallows a number of form editing features.
Other Improvements
- Improved DOCX issues reporting
- Fixes to patent family tree generator
- Improvements to claim parsing accuracy antecedent basis checking
- Many other reported bug fixes and improvements