Client intake for intellectual property.

The facts that decide an intellectual property matter are dates and authorship, and the person usually has both wrong. When the name was first used in trade, when the invention was first shown outside the company, who actually drew the logo and under what agreement. The intake takes each as the person states it, asks for the evidence by name, and lists the rest as open. Disputes arrive as a letter: a cease-and-desist with a response date, an opposition, a takedown. The other side is often a much larger company with counsel, and the conflict check has to hold the company, its principals and its lawyers, plus the contractors who created the work.

• Whether the person wants to protect something, to respond to a claim, to make one, or to deal with a licence or a contract.
• What the thing is: a name or logo, a written or designed work, software, an invention, a design, or something else, described in the person's words.
• When it was first used publicly, sold, or shown to anyone outside the business, as the person dates it.
• Who created it: the person, an employee, a contractor, a co-founder, and what agreement, if any, covers that.
• Any application or registration already filed, with the number and status, and who filed it.
• The countries or markets that matter to the person.
• For a dispute: the other party, what they claim, and the letter or notice with its date and response date as printed.
• Whether the person has already replied to the other side, and what was said.
• Any licence, assignment or contract that touches the thing.
• What the person wants to happen.

• The other party, its principals and its parent company.
• The lawyer or agent who sent any letter or filed any opposition.
• Every creator: employees, contractors, designers, developers, co-founders.
• Co-owners, licensees and licensors.
• Any agent or lawyer who filed an earlier application for the person.
• A platform or marketplace that has acted on a notice, where relevant.

A letter with a response date, an opposition or objection window the person believes applies, a product launch or publication date, or a public disclosure that has already happened. The intake records each date as the person gives it and flags the matter to the lawyer. It never tells the person whether a window has closed, whether a disclosure has cost them anything, or what to say to the other side.

• It never says whether a mark, a work or an invention can be registered or protected.
• It never says whether anything infringes, or whether a claim against the person has merit.
• It never says whether a filing window has closed, a letter's response date has passed, or a limitation period applies.
• It never searches or clears a name, and never advises on adopting or abandoning one.
• It never contacts the other party, its lawyer or a platform.

The machine takes the statement. The lawyer takes the case.