Three Levels of Your Idea
Describe your idea at three levels of specificity, from the concrete thing you built to the general principle behind it. A free worksheet for inventors.
The inventor's paper trail
Every idea exists at several levels at once: the concrete thing you built, the mechanism that makes it work, and the broader technical insight underneath. Being able to move between them is how you talk about your invention precisely, with a collaborator, an investor, an attorney, or your future self.
This worksheet walks you through all three, from most specific to most general. It is an articulation exercise, not legal advice, and it never uses claim language.
The Template
The Three Levels
Idea Name
A short, plain-language name for the idea you're describing.
1. Representative Implementation
The most concrete version: what you actually built or sketched. Specific numbers, materials, code, components, environments, the thing that exists, or the thing you'd ship today.
2. Technical Mechanism
How it achieves the result: the data structure, rule set, model interaction, algorithm, processing sequence, or system arrangement responsible for it. Broader than the specific build, but still a mechanism, not a goal.
3. Invariant Technical Insight
What stays true across implementations: the technical idea that would still hold if someone rebuilt it differently. Keep it a technical mechanism, not a desired outcome. "Make deployment faster" is a goal; "selectively precompute dependency graphs by change locality" is a mechanism.
What Can Change, and What Can't
Which details could change without it being a different idea, and which single detail, if removed, means it is no longer the same idea? This separates the essentials from one way of doing it.
Which Level Matters Most?
Which level is the real value: the representative implementation (this is what I'm shipping) / the technical mechanism (how it works is the value) / the invariant insight (the idea is the value) / all three equally? No wrong answer; it orients the conversation.
Use it in the platform (coming soon)
Our platform will let you fill this in interactively straight from a code scan and export a finished document. Until it launches, use the template above.
See the Concept Scanner or how to write a strong disclosure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why describe my invention at three levels?
Separating what you literally built from what your invention really is helps you talk about it precisely, with a collaborator, an investor, or a patent attorney. The specific version, the function it performs, and the general principle are three different things, and knowing which is which makes every conversation clearer.
Is this the same as writing patent claims?
No. This is an articulation exercise in plain language; it never uses claim wording and does not draft anything. A patent attorney decides how, if at all, to turn your description into claims. The three levels just give them a clearer starting point.
Which level should I focus on?
It depends on where the value is: sometimes the specific implementation is the product, sometimes the function is the value, sometimes the underlying principle is. There is no single right answer, the exercise is to be able to describe all three, then discuss with your attorney which matters for protection.
Do I need this before talking to a patent attorney?
It is optional, but it helps. Engineers often describe only the specific thing they built; being able to also state the function and the general principle gives an attorney more to work with and a fuller picture of the idea.
How is this different from an idea disclosure?
The three-levels worksheet is a short articulation exercise; an idea disclosure is the fuller record of the idea (problem, how it works, who helped, disclosure dates). Many inventors do this first, then fill in the full idea disclosure.
Scope. This is an articulation exercise; it does not establish patentability, claim scope, or protection. Rules can differ by country.
Disclaimer. This template is used solely to document, organize, and describe a technical idea. It and any output are for informational and technical-documentation purposes only and are not a substitute for advice from qualified intellectual property counsel. Use of this template does not constitute legal services or legal, patent, patentability, inventorship, ownership, claim-drafting, filing-strategy, deadline, or freedom-to-operate advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship with Obviously Not. Intellectual-property protection can be time-sensitive: public disclosure, product release, open-source publication, sale, offer for sale, demo, or other external sharing may affect available rights. You are solely responsible for promptly consulting qualified intellectual property counsel about any legal or IP issue.