Matters

A matter is the container for one invention. Prior art bookmarks, uploaded sources, web links, figures, reference-sign elements, and the assistant conversation all live inside one matter, alongside the applications you file from it (US, EP, PCT). Opening an application switches the entire workspace to its matter.

Each application has its own claims, sections, title, reference, jurisdiction, and attached parties. See the Versioning tab for how applications are versioned and how you fork between them.

When you have no active matter

Out of the box, before you open any application, the app runs in global mode. The full sidebar stays visible: patent search, Classifications and Parties at the top, then Matters with the matter pages under it, then Applications with the application pages under it. The matter-agnostic assistant can still search patents and the open web from here, but it has no drafts, figures, or saved prior art to read, because none of that exists outside a matter.

Matter-scoped pages (Sources, Figures, Applications, Claims, Sections, and the rest) stay in the sidebar without an active matter, greyed out; hovering one says to open a matter first.

Settings work the same with or without a matter open. The one setting that belongs to a matter, element numbering, sits in each matter's panel on the Matters page.

Creating a matter

Open Matters from the sidebar and click New matter. The panel beside the list opens on the same screen you edit a matter on, with its fields empty: a reference (your own case number, optional), a name for the invention, and the jurisdiction of the first application, if you already know where you are filing. Nothing is written until the name is filled in — an untouched form is discarded when you close it, and a half-typed one is held with the name field flagged until you either finish it or clear it. The moment it saves, the matter appears in the list, selected, and becomes the matter you are working in.

From there you can:

• Add more applications. The panel's Applications group has a New application button; pick a jurisdiction and the filing is created in place. Each application is the editable filing; its title, docket, claims, sections, and attached parties all live on the application, not on the matter, and are edited from the applications page.
• Reference figures and elements from your prose. Figures and reference-sign elements are matter-wide and shared by every application in the matter.
• Bookmark prior-art patents and save web links. These are also matter-wide, available to every application.

The Matters page

The page is one list of your matters with a panel beside it. The matter you have open is the selected row, and opening the page opens the panel on it. With no matter open, no row is selected and the panel stays closed until you pick one; with no matters at all, the panel opens on the New matter form.

• A row per matter. Each row shows the matter's first figure as a thumbnail, its reference with the name underneath, and on the right a flag per jurisdiction it files in, how many applications it holds, and when it was last edited.
• Clicking a row opens that matter. It becomes the matter you are working in and the selected row: the sidebar names it, the assistant panel switches to its conversation, and you stay on this page with the panel showing its record. The row stays selected when you close the panel. With the keyboard, ↑ and ↓ move a highlight through the list without switching anything, and Enter opens the highlighted matter.
• On a narrow window, where the list and the panel do not fit side by side, the page shows the list. Clicking a row opens that matter and shows its panel in the list's place; Show matters in the toolbar brings the list back. Enter opens the highlighted matter and keeps the list in view.
• Open, on the row's right-click menu or with ⌘/Ctrl+Enter (for the highlighted row, or the one in the panel), also takes you to work: back to the page you were last editing, or to its claims the first time.
• Search. The box in the middle of the toolbar filters as you type, over matter references and names as well as every application's jurisdiction, title and docket. When a search matched an application, that application is highlighted in the panel once you open its matter.
• Sort. The View menu on the left holds Sort by: last edited (the default), reference, name, or created. Anything other than the default is reported at the bottom left of the page.
• New matter. The button at the far right of the toolbar.

The matter panel

Everything about a matter is edited here — there is no separate details dialog and no separate matter page.

• The panel opens with the reference and the name as two fields. Type in either and click away: changes save themselves, there is no Save button, and the word Saving… appears at the bottom left of the page while one is in flight. Clearing the name puts it back, so a matter never loses its name by accident.
• Applications lists every filing with its flag, its docket (with the title beside it), how many versions it has, and its own Open, which takes you to that filing's claims. New application adds one.
• Settings holds the one setting that belongs to a matter: whether reference-sign element numbering is automatic or manual. The assistant's model and reasoning effort are yours rather than the matter's; see Assistant.
• Download matter and Delete sit in a row along the top of the panel, with Close matter beside them on the matter you have open and Close at the right end. There is no Open button: the matter in the panel is already the one you are working in.

The applications page

Applications lists the open matter's filings — one row each, with the office's flag, the docket, the invention title under it, and on the right how many inventors, claims and versions it holds and when it was last edited. The filing you are working in is the selected row, and the page opens with it already open in the panel beside the list; when the matter has no filings, the panel holds the New application form. Clicking a row makes that filing the one you are working in and shows it in the panel, without leaving the page; ↑ and ↓ move a highlight without switching, and Enter switches to the highlighted filing. On a narrow window it works as on the Matters page: the list first, a click shows the panel, Enter keeps the list.

The panel is the filing's front page — the bibliographic data an office prints on page one:

• At the top: the jurisdiction, the working language, the title of the invention and the docket. Type or pick, then click away: changes save themselves, there is no Save button, and the word Saving… appears at the bottom left of the page while one is in flight.
• Inventors and Applicants attach parties from your party list with Add inventor / Add applicant, or create a new one on the spot. Inventors are always people; applicants can be people or organisations.
• Surfaces links to this filing's Claims, Sections and Versions, each showing what it holds. Following one makes this filing the one you are working in. ⌘/Ctrl+Enter opens the claims of the highlighted row, or of the filing in the panel.
• Along the top of the panel: Export, which downloads the filing's current draft as a Word file, and Delete. The two buttons at the right end expand the panel to fill the page and close it.

New application at the top right asks only where you are filing: pick a jurisdiction and the filing is created, with its docket derived from the matter's reference, and the rest becomes editable. The View menu sorts by last edited, jurisdiction or docket, and the search box filters as you type over jurisdictions, titles, dockets and attached party names. A right-click on a row offers Open claims, Open in full page, Open in new tab, Preview and Delete application.

Switching between matters

The left sidebar always shows what you are working on. The row above Sources names the open matter (its reference, or its name when it has none) and the row above Claims names the open filing (for example EP); hover either to see it in full. Both rows lead to their list page, and the list page is where you switch. The breadcrumb above the page names them too, on the pages that work on them: Figures reads ACME-0042 › Figures, Claims reads ACME-0042 › EP › Claims, and clicking either name opens its list.

To switch matters, click the matter row in the sidebar and click another matter in the list. That makes it your active matter on the spot, with Prior Art, Sources, and Sections all now scoped to it; Open on its right-click menu goes on to the page you were last editing (the first time, to its claims). To switch filings, click the application row in the sidebar and click another application; New application there adds one. You can also go straight to a filing with the Open on its row in the matter panel.

Each matter keeps its own assistant conversation. Switching to another matter shows the conversation you last had open there, or a fresh one the first time; switching back brings the first one back. Global mode keeps its own too, so closing a matter returns you to the global conversation you left.

The matter and application you have open persist across sessions: closing the browser, signing out, or coming back through Open App all land you back in the filing you were last working on. Close matter, in the panel of the matter you have open on the Matters page, is the one gesture that forgets it. It closes the panel too, and no row stays selected. Use it when you want to return to global mode.

With no matter open the two rows read Matters and Applications, and everything that belongs to a matter (Sources, Figures, Reference signs, Applications, Claims, Sections, Versions) is greyed out until you open one; hover one to see why. A matter with no application yet greys out only Claims, Sections and Versions.

What lives where

Matter-wide	Per application (per version)
Figures and reference-sign elements	Title, reference
Bookmarked prior-art patents	Jurisdiction (US / EP / PCT)
Saved web links and uploaded sources	Claims
Assistant conversations	Application sections (Background, Summary, etc.)
Settings: element numbering	Inventors and applicants attached to the filing

The people and organisations you name live in a per-user party list, so you don't re-enter them for every application. On the Applications page you attach them in the filing's panel with Add inventor / Add applicant, picking an existing party or creating a new one. The role belongs to the attachment, not the party: the same person can be inventor on one filing and applicant on another. Inventors are always people; applicants can be people or organisations. Attaching a party to a version freezes its details for that filing; see the Versioning tab.

What stays with you across matters

These are tied to your account and persist regardless of which matter is open:

• Theme (dark / light / system)
• Editor preferences including which claim diagnostics are turned on, limitation label style, and prior-art page size
• The assistant's model and reasoning effort

Downloading a matter

Select a matter on the Matters page and choose Download matter in the panel to get everything in it as one ZIP file. It contains an applications folder with each application's current draft as a .docx (matching the Preview panel's Word export), a sources folder with your uploaded files in their original format, a figures folder with each figure as a PNG (pins included), and a matter.json file holding everything else: matter details, applications and versions, claims, bookmarked prior art, web links, attached parties, and assistant conversations. Building the ZIP can take a few seconds on a matter with many sources or figures; the button shows a spinner while it works. If a source file, figure, or drawing sheet cannot be fetched, the ZIP still saves and a notice lists what was left out, so nothing goes missing without your knowledge.

Deleting a matter

Delete a matter with Delete in its panel on the Matters page, or from the row's right-click menu. You are asked to retype the matter's reference or name first. You cannot delete your last matter. Deletion is permanent: every application in the matter, along with its versions, claims, sections, bookmarks, web links, figures, and elements, all go with it. There is no archive. You can also delete a single application with Delete in its panel on the Applications page (or from the row's right-click menu), which removes that filing and its versions while leaving the rest of the matter intact.