Document Templates
Free templates for the whole path from idea to filing. Read each as a walkthrough on the page, copy it, or download the PDF or Word version. Engineering and practitioner documentation, not legal advice.
For inventors, engineers & founders
Plain-language templates to capture a technical idea in your own words before you talk to a patent attorney. No patent vocabulary required.
Idea Disclosure Template
A free, plain-language form to capture a technical idea, what it is, the problem it solves, how it works, before you take it to a patent attorney. Download the editable Word template.
Idea Strength Check
A one-page screen before a full disclosure: the problem, your solution, why it's better, whether anyone's built it, your protection path, and public-disclosure status.
Three Levels of Your Idea
An articulation exercise: describe your invention at three levels, the specific implementation, what it does, and the underlying principle, so you can talk about it precisely with anyone.
Disclosure Quality Check
A pre-handoff self-check: enablement detail, limiting language, claim-shaped sentences, figures, inventorship, ownership clarity, and public-disclosure dates, the gaps that weaken a disclosure.
For patent practitioners
Structured work-aids for patent intake and prosecution, capture scaffolds an attorney fills in. Attorney work-aids, not a substitute for professional judgment.
Invention Disclosure Form
A comprehensive, patent-bar-first invention disclosure form: conception date, prior and planned public disclosure, outside collaboration, inventorship, the technical description, and prior-art context.
Software §101 Eligibility Worksheet
An Alice/§101 scaffold for software: name the abstract-idea risk, the technical improvement and its evidence, meaningful integration, real-world effect, and hardware integration points. Practitioner work-aid.
Non-Obviousness Worksheet
A §103 scaffold: define PHOSITA, map the prior-art landscape, capture the closest reference combinations, articulate why PHOSITA wouldn't combine them, and record secondary indicia. Practitioner work-aid.
Claim Scope Ladder
A graduated-specificity scaffold: capture the invention at narrow, intermediate, and broad rungs, check disclosure support for each, anchor to the commercial embodiment, and run a design-around self-test.
Obviously Not is not a law firm. These templates are for informational and documentation purposes only, are not legal advice, and do not create an attorney-client relationship. Consult a qualified patent attorney about your situation. Primarily US law and USPTO practice; other jurisdictions differ.