Time-Saving and Downloading Tool Improvements in ClaimMaster 2023

The 2023 release of ClaimMaster makes significant improvements to many automated time-saving tools and various downloading features. We hope these changes will enable you to become more efficient in your practice.

Improved claim diff tools

ClaimMaster 2023 has a completely reworked claim diff/compare feature that outputs results in HTML format. These results are much easier to review and, more importantly, are generated almost instantaneously, while previously they took some time to put into Word format. HTML is now the default format for claim comparison feature.

claim diff html option

The new and fast HTML diff reports allow you to specify the claims sets to compare using the drop-down menus. Simply specify claim sets #1 and #2 and ClaimMaster will show your the differences between the two. Claim sets could be extracted from the same document (e.g., comparing independent claims) or different documents or even patents/publications.

claim compare html report

Compare claim amendments in file history

In yet another helpful improvement to time-saving tools, ClaimMaster now lets you quickly review the history of claim amendments in the application’s file wrapper. Specifically, if you point ClaimMaster to an IFW file (in ZIP format) downloaded from Patent Center with XML amendments, ClaimMaster generate a historical diff between amendments.

You’ll be able to review and diff the claims, starting from the original filing to the very last amendment in file history. Simply specify which amendments you want to compare using the drop-down menus and ClaimMaster will show your the differences. This will be a very helpful tool for litigators who need to quickly visualize the history of claim amendments in the file wrapper.

claims compare amendments history

Improved patent family tree tools

In ClaimMaster 2023, the patent family tree tool pulls bibliographic family data from the EPO’s Espacenet services. As you may recall, the USPTO has shut down its PEDs service in 2022, so we’ve transitioned to EPO for this information. Using EPO’s services is much faster and allows generation of even complex family trees in seconds. These trees also include related foreign applications. EPO’s service is typically limited to issued patents or patent publications, however, so if you are trying to get a tree for an application, then you’ll need to use Private PAIR as the source.

Another enhancement to our patent family tree tool is the ability to edit the generated graphs. This may be needed if the generated tree includes too much data or perhaps applications from a wrong family that are linked due to a mistake in the bibliographic data. Once you generate a family tree for the first time, you’ll see the “Edit Generated Tree” button in the interface.

family tree editing option

Clicking that button will enable you to specify which applications you want to include in the generated family tree and prune any items that are not needed before regenerating the family tree again.

family tree editing window

Storing Private PAIR login credentials (+Shells)

ClaimMaster now lets you store Private PAIR login credentials (encrypted, of course) and can populate the fields when you logging to Private PAIR using ClaimMaster PAIR automation widget. You’ll still need to press “Continue” and pass the 2-factor authentication, but at least now you can do it faster, as the email address and password fields will be auto-populated for you. You can enter your PAIR login credentials under the Preferences->Biblio Data and PAIR Options->Private PAIR Settings option.

private pair login information

Boilerplate Assistant

One issue with using the existing ClaimMaster boilerplate galleries is that they are not searchable due to Word’s limitations for the Quick Parts gallery control used for that feature. If you have many boilerplate entries, it could get fairly tedious to find the right boilerplate entries from the long drop-down list without the search option. To address this, ClaimMaster now provides a more helpful interface for quickly searching/filtering the existing boilerplate entries called “Boilerplate Assistant“.

boilerplate assistant menu

Once opened in the task pane, the Boilerplate Assistant lets you search for the desired entries both by category or by specific keywords. You can also preview the contents of each entry (including how it will look with some of the replacement fields being populated with data) and quickly insert the selected entry into the document.

boilerplate assistant window

Click on any topics below to see other improvements in addition to time-saving tools in this release: