Access and pricing
Q: When can I start using IPRally Drafting?
A: Now. IPRally Drafting is available in the IPRally app. To get access or arrange a trial, speak with your account manager or contact commercial@iprally.com.
Q: What does IPRally Drafting cost? Is it priced per seat?
A: IPRally Drafting is an annual per-seat subscription. For a quote, contact your account manager or our sales team.
Q: Do I need a separate Gemini licence? How much AI cost does a typical draft incur?
A: No separate licence is needed. Generative AI is included in the IPRally licence when Gen AI is selected, so there is no extra AI charge per draft.
AI models, data and security
Q: Which AI models does IPRally Drafting use, and how does it compare with the latest ChatGPT or Claude models?
A: The generative features run on Google Gemini models inside Google Cloud: Currently we use Gemini 3 family models for text operations and Gemini 2.5 models for image generation and edit operations. The exact configuration is dependent on the task. In the settings you choose between two model bundles. Faster keeps the interface responsive. Smarter uses the highest effort models and works more thoroughly, and we recommend it for complex cases. You can switch at any point during drafting.
A general-purpose chatbot gives you the model alone. IPRally Drafting adds the structure patent work needs around it: a live prior-art check with the best search engine on the market, reasoning you can inspect before anything enters the draft, accept-or-reject control over every change, and quality reviews that follow EPO and USPTO practice. It’s not just about the model, but the overall drafting experience and building trust.
Q: How novel is the AI? Does IPRally rely on anything proprietary?
A: Yes. The search model behind the prior-art check is built in-house. We train it continuously on real claims and the prior art examiners cited against them, from the USPTO, the EPO and other offices.
For the language models, we use the best models available. Our own work is in the drafting workflows, the best-practice system prompts behind them and how we evaluate the results. We only adopt a new model version once our evaluations show it gives better results.
Q: Does the tool learn my drafting style over time?
A: No. IPRally Drafting does not learn from your drafts, and your work is never used to train the AI. Instead, you save your style preferences once as custom instructions in a preset, and every new draft starts with them. You can also upload earlier filings as seed documents to reuse their terminology, examples and phrasing.
Q: How is my data protected?
A: IPRally is ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 Type II compliant. Drafts, figures and materials are encrypted with a key per company, following the same audited patterns as IPRally search. Our LLM provider has committed to zero data retention, so requests are not stored on its servers. No customer content is used to train AI models, ours or our providers.
Invention materials and the drafting workflow
Q: Can you share a flow diagram of the step-by-step process shown in the demo?
A: Here are the steps in order:
- Add your materials. Upload invention materials, known prior art (KPA) and, optionally, seed documents. You can also import an existing draft in Word format.
- Choose your settings. Pick the drafting style, language, AI assistance level, model bundle and custom instruction preset, and turn planning mode on or off.
- Confirm the inputs. Planning mode shows how the AI read your invention materials, including photographs and drawings, and your known prior art.
- Plan and draft the independent claims. Review the plan and the AI analysis behind it, steer it with prompts, then accept. Run the prior-art check here if you want to set the scope early.
- Plan and draft the dependent claims, then the description, section by section. Turn on Auto-Complete to let the planner run the remaining steps.
- Refine in editing mode. Edit manually or with AI, add drawings, rerun the prior-art check and run the quality reviews.
- Export the finished draft to Word or PDF.
Without planning mode, the first draft is written in one pass. Planning mode takes a little longer, and in our experience it gives a better first draft.
Q: Which file types can I use as invention materials? Are video, audio recordings or CAD files supported?
A: You can upload PDF, JPG, PNG, WEBP, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX and TXT files, up to 50 MB per file. Video, audio and CAD files are not supported at the moment. A written transcript of an inventor meeting works well as invention material.
Q: Can I draft a set of claims myself and let the tool write the rest, such as the description and drawings?
A: Yes. You can import an existing draft in Word format as your starting point. In planning mode, you can also edit each section by hand before accepting it, including the independent and dependent claims, and the planner builds the description from there.
Q: How did the planner produce more than one independent claim? Did Sakari change any settings?
A: No settings were changed. The planner proposed the apparatus and method claims itself, and the AI analysis under the plan explains why it chose those claim categories. In the EU session, Sakari then prompted it to add an independent claim for the control system aspect, and it updated the plan. You can steer the plan like this at every stage before you accept it.
Q: How is the AI assistance level defined? Could a high level raise concerns about AI acting as inventor?
A: The level sets how much the AI adds beyond your invention materials. Low sticks closely to the materials. Medium adds some examples and embodiments. High adds more generously, which helps when a disclosure is short and you need the content an attorney would normally add for enablement and future fallback positions.
At every level, the invention comes from the inventor's materials. What the AI adds is supporting content, and every addition is shown to you before it lands in the draft. We will refine the level definitions based on your feedback.
Q: Can I shape the fallback positions with other input, such as competitive insights from a client?
A: Yes. The planner builds the dependent claims from your invention materials and known prior art, so anything you add there shapes the fallbacks. You can upload competitor documents as known prior art, including non-patent literature as files. You can also prompt the dependent claim plan to target specific fallback positions before you accept it.
Q: Can I change the structure of the generated draft, for example to add a Detailed embodiments section?
A: Your custom instructions always override IPRally's built-in drafting instructions, so you can use them to set the structure you need. You can also add or reshape sections directly in the editor or with the master prompt.
Editing, revising and sharing drafts
Q: How do I change the claims or the draft after inventor comments, whether radically or in detail?
A: In editing mode you can:
- type directly in the draft, as in any text editor
- select a paragraph or section and prompt the AI to change it, for example "elaborate on the charging circuit"
- use the master prompt for changes across the draft, for example "combine claims 1 and 2", with claims renumbered automatically
- ask the master prompt a question, such as how the current claims differ from a given prior art document, without changing the text
- import an updated Word version after a round with the inventor.
Every AI change appears as a colour-coded diff that you accept or reject, one by one or all at once.
Q: When I amend the claims, is the description updated automatically?
A: Proposed changes do not automatically update the description when claims are amended, but you can choose to apply proposed changes across both the claims and description by prompting it to do so. Quality review -> Support for Claims feature is likely to catch major gaps as well. Claim scope optimizer can also add a summary of the relevant prior art to the background section automatically. You confirm each change before it lands in the draft.
Q: Are drafts saved so I can come back and revise them later?
A: Yes. Drafts are stored on IPRally's servers, encrypted per company and organised by matter, so you can work on several cases in parallel. Every edit creates a new version. You can compare any two versions, see the reason for each change and restore an earlier version. Your planning history stays available too.
Q: How do I share a draft to collect comments? Can colleagues in my organisation view my drafts?
A: Sharing is not available yet. In-organisation sharing and comments are planned for Drafting 1.5. For now, export the complete draft, including drawings, to Word to collect comments. You can then import the updated Word file back into IPRally Drafting, and figures from an IPRally export come back as editable figures. You can also apply requested changes through the master prompt.
Q: Is there a best practices guide for the drafting tool?
A: Yes, there is a built-in drafting guide in the tool. One tip from an attendee: a data dictionary in your custom instructions keeps figure labels and reference numbers consistent across filings.
Prior art in the draft
Q: When I edit the claims, does the AI run a completely new search or reuse the documents found earlier?
A: You choose. In the claim scope optimiser, you can check the claims against the known prior art already in the case, or run a new prior-art check. A new check always reads the latest version of the claims and runs separate searches for each claim category. You can run it during planning, right after the independent claims are drafted, and as often as you like in editing mode.
Q: How do I add prior art? Do I enter publication numbers one by one, and can I use a report from IPRally Agent or Smart search?
A: Add patents by publication number, and their bibliography and claims are fetched from our database. You can also upload documents as files, including non-patent literature.
To use an Agent or Smart search report, add its key documents as known prior art by publication number. The draft is then written to distinguish over that art. Starting a draft directly from an Agent report is planned for Drafting 1.5.
Q: Why does the prior-art check stop at 10 documents?
A: Each check analyses the 10 most relevant results in detail, feature by feature. These usually contain the most useful prior art to work with. After you amend the claims, run the check again to see the next set of relevant documents for the new scope. For a broader search, run a full search or Agent in IPRally and add the key results as known prior art.
Q: Why were none of the new references found during drafting cited in the adjusted draft?
A: Documents from a prior-art check inform your decisions, but nothing is added to the draft unless you choose to. When you implement an amendment, tick Add summary to background to describe the document in the background section. You can also add a document to your known prior art, as Sakari did in the US session, where it gets a KPA number you can refer to in prompts. KPA stands for known prior art.
Q: The check works feature by feature. How are combinations of documents treated for obviousness under 35 USC 103?
A: Combination analysis evaluates prior art documents both individually and in combination. Each document is mapped against the features of your current claims, with an assessment of novelty and inventive step and suggested amendments where needed. The colour-coded feature charts show which features each document discloses, so you can see where two documents together cover a claim. In the US session, this is how Sakari spotted an obviousness concern and narrowed the claim. The judgement on how references combine stays with you.
Q: How should I report prior art found during drafting on an IDS to the USPTO? Can I track which prior art was used to adjust the claims?
A: Whether a reference is material is a judgement for you as practitioner. As one attendee rightly pointed out, case law measures materiality from the perspective of the examiner, not the practitioner, so we would not suggest otherwise.
IPRally Drafting gives you the record to make that call. Every prior-art check shows the documents it surfaced and the reasoning behind each suggested amendment. Documents you add become numbered known prior art. Version history records each change to the claims and the reason for it. We recommend exporting the draft to Word at key milestones. A fuller exportable record of the prior-art analysis is on our roadmap.
Claims, clarity and quality reviews
Q: How does the AI balance claim clarity against claim breadth?
A: IPRally Drafting aims for the broadest claim the prior art allows and the description supports, without trading away clarity to get there. Breadth comes from the prior-art check, which shows feature by feature what is already known. Clarity comes from the selected office's rules during drafting (for the EPO, two-part form, reference signs and Art. 84 wording) and from a separate Clarity review. A Claim support review then checks that the description supports the full claimed scope. Where a broad term risks being unclear, the tool flags it and you decide.
There are four built-in quality reviews: clarity, claim support, sufficiency of disclosure and reference numbers, each with EPO and USPTO variants. Custom quality-review rules, where you define your own checks, are on our roadmap.
Q: Can I upload a finished application and run a quality check on it?
A: Yes. Import the application in Word format and run the quality reviews. Corporate IP teams already use this to check drafts delivered by outside firms, and patent offices can use it the same way.
Q: Can the tool trace the reasoning behind a feature and check that it is stated in the description?
A: In planning mode, the AI analysis explains why each feature is proposed and where it comes from: the invention materials, a known prior art document or the rules of the selected office. The Claim support and Sufficiency of disclosure reviews then check the description against the claims. You can also ask the master prompt where the description explains the technical effect of a given feature, and jump straight to the paragraphs it cites.
Q: Can the tool insert reference signs in the claims? Can they stay in a US draft for review?
A: Yes. In EPO style, Sync to specification adds reference signs to the claims in parentheses. In USPTO style, reference signs in claims are treated as unintended behavior when they appear by default, but can be overridden by custom instruction or singular prompting. Several attendees asked us to keep them visible in US drafts during review, so the attorney can check how each claim feature maps to the figures. We will inspect what the best practice way would be.
Q: Could the suggestions count as legal advice? How is unauthorised practice of law handled?
A: IPRally Drafting is a tool for patent professionals. The attorney remains the author: every AI proposal is shown with its reasoning, lands only when accepted, and is checked again by the quality reviews. The professional judgement on what to file stays with you.
Drawings, chemistry and equations
Q: How does figure generation work, and what can I do when a figure comes out wrong?
A: The drawings panel gives you three ways to add figures: upload them, identify them from your materials, or generate them from the draft text. You can generate a single figure from a selected passage, or let the tool read the whole draft and propose figures where it placed figure placeholders. Some figures, such as system-level processes, come out as flowcharts rather than images.
Generating from text is the most powerful option and the least predictable. When a figure is wrong, prompt the AI to change it, delete it, or switch to the Smarter model bundle and try again. The tool always asks whether to keep the original or the new version. If a figure still will not change, please send us the example so we can improve it.
Q: Can the drawing generator use the figures and graphs in my materials? Can figures come in earlier than editing mode?
A: Yes to the first. Identify from materials finds the figures in your uploaded materials and imports them, either as they are or refined into patent-style line drawings. In both sessions, a prototype photograph was converted into a line drawing with the background and colours removed.
The AI reads the images in your invention materials from the first planning step, so they inform the claims and description from the start. The figures themselves are added in editing mode, and the first draft marks with placeholders where figures fit.
Q: Can I edit drawings without AI? Is SVG supported? Can I export drawings to an editable format such as AutoCAD?
A: Flowcharts can be edited directly in their source code as well as by prompt. Reference numerals are placed by the AI and can be dragged into position. While direct SVG uploading is not supported, vector drawing source editing is available for templates, and you can upload images drawn in your own tools. Drawings export to Word with the specification, and figures in a Word file exported from IPRally come back as editable figures when you import it. CAD formats are not supported. Direct, visual editing of figures is on our roadmap.
Q: How are reference numerals managed?
A: Every figure you generate or import runs through a reference number detector. It places the numerals using the terms introduced in the draft and keeps the numbering consistent across figures. Sync to specification then brings the numerals and figure descriptions into the text as a reviewable edit, and the Reference numbers review flags any mismatch.
Q: Does the tool support LaTeX formulae? Are they preserved as Word equations on export?
A: Yes, for writing and editing. Equations are written in LaTeX, with a live preview and an AI assistant that edits formulas from plain-language instructions. Equations export to Word and PDF as images.
Extracting formulae from disclosure documents may work, but it is not reliable yet, so some copying and pasting may be needed for now. We would welcome your examples.
Q: Can the equation editor generate equations from data points, such as a table?
A: It should. You can give the equation editor's AI assistant any input and ask it to work with it, and it runs on high-end Gemini models. Please test it and tell us if something does not work.
Q: Does IPRally Drafting work for chemistry, pharma and agro applications? Does it support ChemDraw, Markush claims and sequence listings?
A: You can add chemical structures using SMILES notation, and IPRally Drafting generates the structure drawings. To change a structure, update the SMILES and the drawing is regenerated. ChemDraw files are not supported, but you can copy a structure from ChemDraw as a SMILES string and paste it in. You can also upload PNG, JPG or WEBP structure images drawn elsewhere. In that case, you edit them outside the tool and replace the image.
Sequence listings are not fully supported yet. A deeper understanding of chemistry, including Markush structures, is part of an industry-specific track on our roadmap.
Languages, drafting styles and custom instructions
Q: Which languages are supported? Can I draft in another language, such as Polish?
A: You can draft in eight languages: English (UK), English (US), French, German, Finnish, Swedish, Italian and Spanish. The search index is in English, so non-English claims are translated automatically for the prior-art check while your draft stays in your language. We will add more languages based on your requests.
Q: If I draft in EPO style, can I convert the draft to US style for a parallel filing?
A: You can draft in three styles: Global (built for smooth national-phase entry in the US, Europe, China and Japan), EPO or USPTO. You can change the style at any time, and it applies from the next AI step. To restyle text already in the draft, ask the master prompt. Styles steer the AI strongly, and as with any draft, the attorney reviews the result.
Q: Can we add our own drafting guidelines? Can I upload them as a file?
A: Yes. Save your drafting style and writing preferences as custom instructions under Settings. You can store as many presets as you need, for example preferred terminology ("use 'unmanned aerial vehicle' instead of 'drone'") or in-house drafting rules. Your custom instructions always override IPRally's built-in instructions.
Custom instructions are entered as text and cannot be uploaded as a file at the moment. For style guidance from a document, upload an earlier filing as a seed document and tell the AI to follow its terminology, examples or general style.
Office actions and the roadmap
Q: Can I use IPRally Drafting for office actions, with the current claims, description and cited prior art?
A: Yes, although it is a drafting tool and not yet optimised for office action work. Import the current version of the application as a draft and add the cited documents as known prior art. The claim scope optimiser then maps your claims against the cited art feature by feature, which helps you form your own view where the office's reading of the art may be wrong. A prototype office action module is already available in the Patent Playground in our prototype gallery.
Q: Which parts of the patent process are you working on next? Will there be modules for oppositions, invalidity opinions or third-party observations?
A: Drafting is the first product in our Protection pillar, and we will keep improving it quickly based on your feedback. Next up:
- Drafting improvements based on feedback, with high short-term priority on drawings-text-interaction operations, in-organisation sharing and comments, templates, and integrations with IPRally Agent.
- Smart IDF: an invention disclosure module that helps R&D submit complete, high-quality disclosures and feeds them into drafting. It is already in prototype.
- Prosecution: a dedicated office action module.
We have no announcement yet on oppositions, invalidity opinions or third-party observations, and we have passed these requests to our product team. On the search side, IPRally's invalidity search agent already supports invalidity work. If you would like to shape any of these modules, we would be glad to work with you.
Q: Can I try IPRally Drafting?
A: Yes. Tell us a little about your drafting work and request a demo, and we will set up a trial on a real or recently filed case so you can compare it with your current process.
Q: Can I watch the recording of the webinar?
A: Yes, it’s available here.
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