The full lifecycle
One continuous record. Three positions on it.
ZeroToIP is usually described as products, one for inventors, one for counsel. That is the wrong cut. There is one record, and there are three places you can stand to look at it.
Inventor's surface
- Capture
- Distillation
- Patentability
- Claim set
- Figures
- First draft
Counsel's workroom
- Review
- Prior-art queue
- Redlines
- Filing gate
- Prosecute
Portfolio
What you own · gaps and coverage · expansion candidates · every date that would lapse
01
The inventor's surface
Where an invention becomes a document. Stages one through three, in your hands and on your time.
02
The crossing
The wall, and the mechanism that makes passing it lossless.
03
Counsel's workroom
Where the document becomes a filing, and every decision on it is recorded.
The first position has two horizons.
An inventor is never looking at one thing. There is the invention in front of them, the one being described, searched, claimed, drawn and drafted this month. And there is everything they already own, which is what the invention in front of them has to fit into.
Most tools serve one and pretend the other does not exist. Filing services handle the single matter and lose interest after the filing. Portfolio tools handle the estate and cannot help you make the next thing. Both halves live here, on the same record, which is the only reason the second one can be honest about the first.
Part one is the invention in front of you. Part two is everything around it.
Part one · the inventor’s surface
From what you have to a draft an attorney can file.
Six steps. No legal knowledge is required at any of them, not to start, not to decide, not to finish. That is a constraint on the product, not a marketing claim: every question asks about the thing you built, and every screen states what it found rather than what it assumes you already know.
- 01
Invention capture
Upload what you have, then five sections of plain questions. About eight minutes, and you can speak the answers.
The specific: Problem statement, novel aspects, solution overview, key components, alternative embodiments. Every question asks what you built, who it is for, and what is different about it. Not one asks you to characterize it in patent language. The required fields are counted in the open, and the disclosure submits when they are done.
app.zerotoip.com- Capture
- Distillation
- Patentability
- Claims
- Figures
- Draft
Invention capture
5 / 7 · ~3 min left
- Problem statement
- Novel aspects
- Solution overview
- Key components
- Alternative embodiments
Novel aspects
The difference is that we take the temperature across two modules that are not next to each other, with at least one module in between, and drive the pump from that.
You can speak it. Nothing is graded.
- 02
Approve the distillation
The system states back what it thinks you built. You correct it before anything is drafted.
The specific: This is the first gate, and it belongs to you. Nothing downstream is generated against a description you have not confirmed is right: no search, no claim, no figure.
app.zerotoip.com- Capture
- Distillation
- Patentability
- Claims
- Figures
- Draft
Approve the distillation
you confirm each line
a revolutionary AI-powered thermal platform
a closed-loop coolant controller
seamlessly optimises battery performance
varies pump rate during discharge
industry-leading thermal accuracy
resolves differentials across non-adjacent modules
Nothing is rewritten without you approving that line.
- 03
See where you stand
Prior art mapped against §102 anticipation and §103 obviousness, on the art actually located.
The specific: Each ground names the references it is scored against and the rank of that evidence. A search that found little on thin evidence is reported as thin evidence, never as a clearance.
Patentability · Appl. No. 18/xxx,xxx
34 references
- §102AnticipationClear on located art
- No single reference teaches every limitation of claim 1.
- §103ObviousnessAt risk on two combinations
- US7,914,232 with US9,204,111 reaches claim 1 without the spectral identification step. Claim 1 is narrow enough only if that step stays in.
6 read in full · 28 abstract-only · 11 carry inferred dates
Every conclusion above names the evidence it stands on and its rank. Where the evidence is thin, this screen says thin evidence. It does not say clear.
- 04
Build and test a claim set
Distil what the invention really is, then push on it and watch where it breaks.
The specific: You draft claims and run them against the located art to see which limitations are carrying the weight. Narrowing is a decision you make with the consequence in front of you, not a surprise from counsel three weeks later.
app.zerotoip.com- Capture
- Distillation
- Patentability
- Claims
- Figures
- Draft
Build and test a claim set
4 claims
- 1.A thermal regulation system for a modular battery assembly, comprising a plurality of cell modules arranged in a stacked configuration
- 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the controller increases the coolant flow rate in response to the temperature differential exceeding
- 3.The system of claim 2, wherein the first threshold is determined as a function of ambient temperature, state of charge, or load
- 4.The system of claim 1, further comprising a heat exchanger in fluid communication with the coolant channel and a pump
Tested against
- US7,914,232
- US9,102,441
- EP2 771 903
Claim 1 reads on the first. Narrow it, or keep it and say why.
- 05
Preliminary figures
Figures drawn from the description, with numerals that match the text.
The specific: Figure numbers, reference numerals, and the labels in the specification are generated together and stay consistent, because the same record holds all three.
app.zerotoip.com- Capture
- Distillation
- Patentability
- Claims
- Figures
- Draft
Preliminary figures
3 sheets
FIG. 1 FIG. 2 FIG. 3 Numerals against the spec
- 110in the description
- 120in the description
- 132not yet written
- 06
First draft
A complete specification, written around the references that were actually found.
The specific: Title, field, background, summary, brief description of the drawings, detailed description, claims. It prints how many references it was drafted around, or, in amber, that no search was run.
app.zerotoip.com- Capture
- Distillation
- Patentability
- Claims
- Figures
- Draft
First draft
with counsel
[0037] Referring now to FIG. 1, a modular battery assembly 100 includes cell modules 110a through 110f arranged in a stacked configuration along a longitudinal axis. Coolant channels 120 are disposed at the interfaces between adjacent modules and are placed in fluid communication with a pump 130 and a heat exchanger 140. The number of modules shown is illustrative; assemblies of two modules and of several dozen are both contemplated.
Every one of those six is a step an inventor takes alone, and none of them require knowing what §103 means before you start.
And alongside it, counsel. Before the handoff, not after.
The crossing is usually described as a moment. It is closer to a channel that opens early and stays open. While you are still drafting, your attorney is already reachable in the matter itself.
Schedule
Book time with your attorney without leaving the matter.
Ask against a passage
Questions attach to the specific claim or paragraph they are about, and the answers stay there.
Attorney to-dos
What counsel needs from you, listed, with the passage it blocks. You clear them in place.
Questions, on the passage
[0038] Temperature sensors 150 are thermally coupled to each of the cell modules. In certain embodiments a sensor is coupled to an exterior face of each module housing; in other embodiments a sensor is embedded within the housing itself, in thermal contact with the cell stack. The particular placement is not limiting, provided the sensor reports a temperature representative of the module to which it is coupled.
[0039] The controller 160 receives temperature values from the sensors and computes one or more differentials. A differential is computed between a first cell module and a second cell module that is not adjacent to the first, such that at least one intervening cell module lies between them along the longitudinal axis. In the embodiment shown, differentials are computed between modules 110a and 110c, and between modules 110d and 110f.
The answer lands in the passage, not in somebody’s inbox.
Part two · the inventor’s surface
Everything you own, read as one position.
A portfolio is not a list of filings. It is a claim about which parts of what you build are defended and which are open, and it only answers that question if the matters inside it carry their own history, which, here, they do.
What you own
Every matter and every status in one place: filed, pending, granted, lapsed.
Live USPTO and trademark status rather than a spreadsheet somebody updated in March.
Gaps and coverage
Which areas of what you build are covered, and which are not.
The useful question is rarely how many patents you have. It is which parts of the product nobody has protected, and that is a map, not a count.
Cumulative strategy
The portfolio read as one position, not as a pile of individual filings.
Where the claims overlap, where they leave a lane open, and what a continuation would have to cover to close it.
Dates that would lapse
Office actions, responses, maintenance windows, renewal cascades.
Docketed with the statutory authority that sets each date, so a deadline is traceable to the rule that created it rather than to somebody's calendar entry.
Portfolio · both seats
4 matters · 2 firms
- US 18/377,105Array self-testgranted2026
- US 18/412,880Beam-steeringpendingOA due Sep
- PCT/US24/61230Voltage islandnational phase30 mo Nov
- US 17/998,204Coolant loopgrantedrenewal Dec
Every date carries where it came from, and when it was last checked.
The same record that drafted the application is the one that tells you what it left uncovered.
Part three · counsel’s workroom
The same record, from the side that signs it.
Everything above arrives here attached to the matter rather than as an attachment to an email: the disclosure, the search, the claim set, the questions the client answered and what they decided. The attorney does not start over, because there is nothing to re-key.
- 07
A queue, already sorted
The draft arrives with its redlines ranked by what it would cost to miss them, each one naming the reference it came from.
Nothing in the queue has been applied. Every card is a proposal waiting on a specific approval, and the order is by consequence rather than by arrival.
counsel.zerotoip.com- Queue
- Strategy
- The gate
- Prosecution
Your review queue
3 waiting on you
[0037] Referring now to FIG. 1, a modular battery assembly 100 includes cell modules 110a through 110f arranged in a stacked configuration along a longitudinal axis. Coolant channels 120 are disposed at the interfaces between adjacent modules and are placed in fluid communication with a pump 130 and a heat exchanger 140. The number of modules shown is illustrative; assemblies of two modules and of several dozen are both contemplated.
Sorted by what it would cost you to miss it, not by when it arrived.
- 08
Claim strategy, deliberately
Move the scope and the specification rebuilds under it, still anchored to what the client actually disclosed.
The machine does not choose scope. It shows what each choice costs against the located art and rewrites the support once you have chosen.
counsel.zerotoip.com- Queue
- Strategy
- The gate
- Prosecution
Claim strategy
you set the scope
Specification
[0040] In response to a computed differential exceeding a first threshold, the controller increases the coolant flow rate through the channels. In response to the differential falling below a second threshold, the controller reduces the flow rate. The first and second thresholds may be fixed, or may be determined as a function of ambient temperature, state of charge, commanded load, or a combination thereof.
Rebuilding under the claims you moved, anchored to the client’s disclosure.
- 09
The gate, and the override
Before a filing the system states what it found. You can proceed anyway, and that decision is written down with your reason.
There is no configuration that removes the gate, and no way to pass it silently. Filing over an open finding is a recorded act with a name on it.
counsel.zerotoip.com- Queue
- Strategy
- The gate
- Prosecution
The filing gate
your call, on the record
Knockout reference located
US7,914,232 reads on claim 1
Two dates unverified
Inferred from the index, not the document
Search run before drafting
34 references, 6 read in full
Resolve firstFile over 2 open findingsrecorded with your reason - 10
Docket and prosecution
Office actions, responses and renewals on one docket, each date carrying the authority that sets it.
The same record that drafted the application is the one that answers the office action, so the file history is continuous rather than reconstructed.
counsel.zerotoip.com- Queue
- Strategy
- The gate
- Prosecution
Docket and prosecution
2 firms · 4 matters
- US 18/377,105Office actionSep 14
- US 18/412,880Response filedAug 02
- PCT/US24/61230National phaseNov 30
Every date carries the authority that sets it, not just the date.
And the wall between them
The crossing
What survives the wall, and the mechanism that makes it lossless, published in full: every gate, and what happens on the record when you override one.
See the architecture →For your firm
The whole counsel platform, the supervision record it produces, and what it costs a practitioner in hours to run a matter through it.
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