Managing and servicing

Open Portfolio Management from the side menu; its search screen is Search Processes. You can combine filters such as Applicant, Clients, Title/Epigraph, Modality, Jurisdiction, Status, Representative, Next Action, Reference and File Number, date ranges for Deposit Date, Publication Date, Grant Date, Refusal Date and Next Action Date, and classifications: Nice, Vienna Categories, Locarno and International Classification. Where it is available, Natural Language Search lets you describe what you are looking for in your own words, typed or dictated, instead of filling in each filter. Choose See Results to view the matches in Card View, Table View or Map View; Table View is the most compact for long lists, and Select All Records lets you act on the whole set, for example with Print Document. Back to Filters returns you to the search with your criteria kept. Opening a case shows its full record, and Previous case and Next case move you through the results without going back to the list. If nothing matches, the screen says so plainly, which usually means a filter is too narrow. For a quick lookup when you already know a reference, number or name, use the global search in the header, available on every screen. Results are always limited to the account selected in the user menu.

An IP case opens on five tabs. General is the record of the right itself: its Modality, File number, Reference, Internal Number and Client Reference, Jurisdiction, official State and Internal State; the dates (deposit, publication, grant, refusal and others, with the publication bulletin where relevant); the entities involved, such as client, applicant and representative, and for patents the inventors; the Next action and Next Deadline; the classes (Nice with its goods and services, Vienna, Locarno or international classification); the image; Vigilance and Warnings; the Life Cycles; and Observations. Annotations holds notes about the case with their date and author, which can be marked Private. Evolution is the history of the case in two parts: Action, the acts done or due with their limit and execution dates, service, quantities and amounts, and Invoice, the invoices raised. Documents lists the documents filed against the case, whether incoming, outgoing or internal, with their type, classification, dates, subject, entity, correspondent, AI summary and deadline. Logs records who did what to the case and when. From the case you can also Show lifecycle graph, open the file in the registration office, Generate document with OIL, and move to the Previous case or Next case of your search.

To edit a case, open it from Search Processes and switch the General tab into edit mode. You can then change its details and dates, the entities table (adding or removing rows for client, applicant, representative and the other roles), the Nice classes, which you can add by class number or by typing a product or service description, the Vienna, Locarno and international classifications, descriptions, observations and the life cycle type. Fields marked with an asterisk are required, and the case cannot be saved while one is missing. Save keeps your changes and Cancel discards them; if you try to close with unsaved changes, Ignite asks before throwing them away. Editing requires the Contributor or Admin role: a Reader can open every tab but cannot change anything. Every change is recorded on the Logs tab with the date, the user and the action, so the trail of who changed what is kept. Deleting a case is a different matter. Ignite asks you to confirm that you really want to delete the process, and you should treat a deletion as permanent; whether you may delete depends on your role and on how your account is organised. If a right has lapsed, been refused or been transferred, it is usually better to record its new status, which keeps its history, than to delete it.

Opening a new IP case is done in two steps. From Portfolio Management you start a new case, and Ignite first asks which type of right it is, for example a trade mark, a patent or a design, so that it shows the right form. In the first step you enter the essential details and save; the case is then held with a provisional status, and Ignite confirms that the new process was saved. In the second step you complete the record, with its dates, entities, classes, image and the rest of the General tab, and the case takes its place in the portfolio. If you leave a new case unfinished, Ignite remembers it: the next time you start one, it tells you that an unsaved process was found and asks you to save it, or cancel it to create a new one. Closing the form without saving deletes the unsaved details, after asking you. Creating cases requires the Contributor or Admin role, and the number of processes your account can hold depends on your plan. A case can also be opened from the document workflow drawer: when an incoming document mentions a right that is not in your portfolio, it is shown in red with the option to open a case for it, linked to the client, when you save the document. To bring in many existing cases at once, use Upload portfolio instead.

Annotations are notes attached to an IP case: an instruction received by phone, a decision taken in a meeting, a question to follow up or the reasoning behind a step. You find them on the Annotations tab of the case, where each is listed with its date and the user who wrote it, so the tab reads as a dated history of the conversation around the right. Choose New Annotation, write the text and use Add annotation to save it; you can later update or delete an annotation, expand a long one to read it in full, and Delete all Annotations clears the case's notes after a warning. Adding and changing annotations requires the Contributor or Admin role. Each annotation can be marked Private. When your client follows the portfolio through Darwin Lightbox, annotations can be shared with them there where the configuration allows it, and the client can annotate the same case in return, which makes annotations a practical channel for instructions and replies. Mark an annotation Private whenever it is meant for your own team only, such as internal deliberations, fee discussions or notes about the client, and it stays within your account. Annotations are never public. As good practice, keep each annotation to one subject, state decisions and dates clearly, and do not record more personal data than the matter needs.

The Evolution tab is the working history of a case, kept in two parts. Action lists the acts: each row has an Act ID and the act itself, its Act Limit Date (the date by which it must be done), its Act Date and Act Exec Date, the Service, Quantity, Unit and Unit price, whether it is Invoiceable, the External costs, Official Taxes and Office fees, the Act total, the entity concerned, observations and an attached file where there is one. Invoice lists the invoices raised for the case with their number, date, value, currency, description and observations. You add a row with Add row and can update or delete rows; maintaining them requires the Contributor or Admin role. The tab matters beyond the record itself. An act with a limit date that has not been executed is a pending act, and pending acts are combined with the case's next valid date to give the Next Deadline shown on screens and coloured as it approaches. The same acts feed the Deadlines card on the dashboard's Operations tab, which counts acts past due and acts executed in the period, and acts marked as invoiceable feed the Rentability indicator, which separates your fees from disbursements. Court cases have an Evolution tab of their own, which works in the same way for litigation.

On an IP case, Show lifecycle graph opens the Theoretical life cycle of the right, and Hide lifecycle graph closes it again. The graph draws the steps a right of that kind normally goes through in its jurisdiction, from filing through examination, publication and grant to the renewals or annuities that keep it alive, with the time between steps expressed in days, months or years. Each box is either a State the right can be in or a Condition that decides the next step, with the branches marked Condition met and Condition not met, so you can see not only the usual route but also what happens if, for example, an opposition is filed or a payment is missed. The graph shows where the case stands and the date of the previous step, which helps you explain to a client what comes next and when. Hold Ctrl and use the mouse wheel to zoom in on a long life cycle. It is a theoretical model built from rules, not a record of what has actually happened to the case: the case's own dates and its Evolution tab remain the authority. Life cycles are available for trade marks and patents in all jurisdictions, and for all modalities in jurisdictions whose bulletins are processed; where none is defined, Ignite says that no life cycle is defined for this case.

The Next Deadline shown for a case combines two sources: the case's next valid date, which is the next occasion on which the right has to be kept alive, such as a renewal or an annuity, and the pending acts on its Evolution tab, meaning acts with a limit date that have not yet been executed. So an instruction with a limit date next week comes before a renewal due next year. As the date approaches, the deadline is coloured according to the margin configured for your account: Normal while there is time, Critical when it is close and Overdue once it has passed, in search results and on the case alike. You can also search by Next Action and Next Action Date in Search Processes to list what is coming up. On the Dashboard, the Operations tab gives two further views: the Deadlines card counts the acts that fell due in the period and are still not executed, and those executed, across IP cases and court cases, while What falls due looks ahead month by month at the dates on which rights must be kept alive. Court cases carry their own next deadline in the same way. Deadlines also arrive with your post: when you register a document in the document workflow drawer, the deadlines found in it are proposed and the nearest becomes its Due By date.

A case can carry the classifications that apply to its type of right. Trade marks use the Nice Classification of goods and services: you can add a class by its number or by typing a product or service description, and Ignite helps you find the right class from that description. The goods and services are recorded per class, and classes can be active or inactive, so a class no longer protected stays visible in the record. Figurative marks can also carry Vienna classes, which describe the figurative elements of the image, such as a star, an animal or a shape, and which you can search and add from the case. Designs use the Locarno Classification, and patents an international classification. Each list can be maintained a row at a time, and Delete all clears it after a warning. Classes are more than a description. They are filters in Search Processes, where you can search by Nice, Vienna Categories, Locarno and International Classification; they are what the watches compare with newly published marks, together with any associated classes you configure; they can restrict the content of reports; and OIL templates can include them in letters, one by one and aggregated, with Nice classes active and inactive. Keeping them accurate therefore improves your searches, your watch results and your correspondence.

Yes. On an IP case, View File in Registration Office opens the record of that case in the online register of the IP office concerned, so you can compare your own details with the official ones without searching for the case again on the office's website. The link depends on the office publishing an online register that can be reached that way, so it is available for some jurisdictions and not for others. It is a link for consultation only: Ignite reads public registers and bulletins, but nothing you change in Ignite is sent to the office, and filings, payments and responses are still made through the office's own channels. When you are working through a list of results, Previous case and Next case move you from one case to the next in the order of your search, which makes it quick to check a series of cases against the register one after another. Back to Selected Cases returns you to the list, and Back to Filters takes you back to the search criteria. Court cases have equivalent Previous court case and Next court case buttons. If you find a difference between your record and the register, correct your case on the General tab or, if you believe the office's data is wrong, take it up with the office.

Litigation is kept in Court Case, separately from the IP cases it may concern. The search screen lets you filter by Client, Country, Process, Process Reference, Internal Reference, State, Court, Judge, Representative, Next Action and Next Action Date, and First Notification, Last Notification and Decision dates, and shows the results in Card View, Table View or Map View. A court case opens on three tabs. General Data holds the Title, Process Reference, Country, Process, Court Proc. Number, Internal Reference, State, Court, Judge and Responsible; the dates, such as the first and last notification and decision dates; the Client and Representative; a table of entities with their role, correspondent and comments; Observations; and a timeline of the matter. Evolution holds the acts and invoices of the proceedings, and Documents the documents filed against it. Each court case has a Next Deadline, coloured Normal, Critical or Overdue as it approaches. Use Enter edit mode to make changes, then Save or Cancel; Delete court case removes it after confirmation. Previous court case and Next court case move through your results. Acts on court cases count in the dashboard's Deadlines card and, when chargeable, in Rentability, and the person named as Responsible is the one they count for under Personal.