Sections

The Sections page is where you write the body of your patent application: the prose sections that surround the claims, from Field of the Invention through the Abstract. Each application carries a fixed set of sections determined by its jurisdiction, and everything you write here flows straight into the assembled document in the Preview panel.

The section set

Every application has the same core sections: Field of the Invention, Background of the Invention, Summary of the Invention, Detailed Description, and Abstract. These are required.

Three more are optional:

Cross-Reference to Related Applications: references to parent, provisional, or related filings.
Brief Description of the Drawings: an entry for every figure. Required by patent offices only when the application has drawings, so it is modelled as optional here. It is also where Nodes-IP reads what each figure shows: the line describing a figure is its caption everywhere in the app (see Figures).
Industrial Applicability: EP and PCT applications only; it does not appear for US applications.

An optional section that is empty simply drops out of the preview and export. You never file an empty heading.

Moving between sections

Opening the Sections page puts you straight into a section: the first one in the application's order. The Sections list beside the page is how you move between them. It shows every section of this application in filing order with its word count, an Empty tag where nothing is written yet, and a dot where the assistant has an edit waiting for review; the section you are reading is marked. Click a row to switch, or press <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>↑</kbd> / <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>↓</kbd> (<kbd>Cmd</kbd> on a Mac) to step through them without leaving the keyboard. Switching never reloads the page, and the address bar always names the section you are reading, so you can share the link.

The breadcrumb at the top of the page carries the same list, which is how you jump to a section from anywhere else in the application.

The editor

Each section is a rich-text editor. You write prose on a single page of paper; the section saves automatically as you type, and the line under the page reports it: the word count on the right, and on the left when the draft was last edited — replaced, as soon as you type, by Unsaved changes, then Saving…, then Changes saved, and by a warning if a save fails.

Formatting depends on the section. Short, formal sections (Field, Abstract, Industrial Applicability) are plain text. Cross-Reference and Background allow bold and italic. The longer sections (Summary, Brief Description of the Drawings, Detailed Description) also support subheadings and lists, so you can structure embodiments or list figure entries properly. The formatting toolbar above the page shows exactly what the current section supports.

References work the same way as everywhere else in Nodes-IP: type claim 1, FIG. 2, or a reference sign like (101) and it becomes a linked chip that survives renumbering. Start an element's name and a suggestion list offers its sign, or press @ to insert any reference explicitly. See the References tab for the full system.

The Edit menu above the page also offers Copy, which copies the section to the clipboard as plain text with every chip resolved to its current label.

Issues

The Issues group beside the editor flags unlinked mentions: prose that names an element, a figure, or a claim without the matching link attached, most often text you typed before deciding on a number or before converting it. It updates live as you type. In the editor, an unlinked mention gets an amber underline; hovering it shows what it matches and why. Click a card in the panel, or click the underline itself, to jump to the spot and reopen the suggestion picker there, pre-filled with the matched entity: one click and <kbd>Enter</kbd> attaches the link. Nodes-IP never inserts a link for you, the same way automatic reference detection always leaves element labels alone; dismiss a mention from its card if you want to leave it as plain prose on purpose. A dismissal is saved with the document, so it stays dismissed for every reviewer.

The group also flags an unknown reference sign: a parenthetical group like (44, 546) where one sign matches a declared element and another doesn't. This usually means a typo or an element you never added to the drawings. A group where no sign matches anything, such as a year, is left alone: with nothing in the group known to be correct there's no basis for calling the rest wrong.

On the Brief Description of the Drawings, the group checks that every figure is described, since patent offices require each drawing to be. A figure no line describes is listed under Figure not described by its number (FIG. 17A is not described), so a figure you added, split into 4a and 4b, or renumbered after writing the section can't drop out of the filed text. A line describes the figures it starts with, written out or linked: FIG. 3 is a section…, Fig. 2: shows…, FIGS. 13 to 16 show…, or a style with no verb at all, FIG. 2 schematically the device…. A figure named later in a line (…a section of FIG. 3) doesn't count, and neither do introductory or closing paragraphs. A figure that only groups sub-figures under one number, with no drawing of its own, stands for them: a line naming it covers its sub-figures, and it counts as described once all of them are. A figure with a drawing of its own needs its own line, like any other. A figure that two lines name is noted too, more quietly: it is harmless in itself, but usually left over after a renumbering.

Find and replace

Press <kbd>Cmd</kbd>+<kbd>F</kbd> (or <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>F</kbd>) to open find and replace. It searches across every section of the application, not just the one on screen, with match-case and whole-word toggles. Replace all rewrites every matching section in one step; matches in the visible section are highlighted as you type. Reference chips are left intact, only the surrounding prose changes.

The assistant drafts and edits sections

The assistant can write section content for you: draft a Background from your prior art, generate the Brief Description of the Drawings from your figures, or rework a paragraph of the Detailed Description.

On this page, three actions sit just above the assistant input:

Draft section writes the section you have open from your claims, figures and sources. It asks only for what those don't settle, such as which embodiment to describe or what technical effect to state, and checks with you before replacing text that is already there.
Edit section first asks what you want: tighten the wording, expand an embodiment, align the terms with the claims, add reference numerals, or something else. Nothing changes until you answer.
Check description asks what to check: whether every claim feature is supported in the description, whether the terminology matches the claims, whether the reference numerals match the figures, or everything. It lists the problems first and proposes fixes as pending changes. Type a focus after the command, for example /check-description support, and it starts straight away.

Support is the check that matters most. At the European Patent Office, a claim feature that has no basis in the description as filed can't be added later: adding it would count as new matter, which the rules forbid. So every feature you claim should be described somewhere in these sections before you file.

Assistant edits are never applied silently. Each one appears as a pending change:

In the editor, the proposed edit shows inline in suggesting style: deleted text struck through in red, inserted text underlined in green.
Hover an inline diff to accept or reject it. Accepting applies the edit to the section; rejecting discards it.
A wholly new draft for an empty section has no diff to hover; it pins to the top of the editor with its own Accept and Reject controls.
Edits to sections you are not currently viewing stay discoverable as dots in the Sections list and in the breadcrumb section switcher.

You can collapse the column beside the page and give the text the full width. Click the toggle at the top right of the page, above the text, to hide it, click it again to bring it back; your choice is remembered. While it is hidden, the word count under the page is a button that brings it back. On a narrow window with the assistant open, the column steps aside on its own and returns when there is room again.

Between the Sections list and the Issues group, Statistics reports the open section's paragraph and word counts.

From sections to the assembled document

The Preview panel renders your sections as the outgoing document: title and bibliography first, then the sections in filing order, with the claim set slotted between the Detailed Description and the Abstract and the drawing sheets at the end. The claims themselves are drafted on the Claims page.

Formatting follows the application's jurisdiction unless you change it in the Preview panel. US applications get bracketed paragraph numbers ([0001], [0002]) running continuously across the sections; EP, PCT and NL applications get indented paragraphs instead. Section headings render in document style (uppercase, centered) regardless of how they appear in the editor.

Sections belong to the application's working draft, and every checkpoint freezes its own copy of them; see Versioning. Word export of the full document lives in the Preview panel.