Product update for Q1 2022
We got a ton of incredible feedback from our early users during our open beta that began at the start of the year. The app will launch into general availability at the start of April. If you haven’t already signed up, you can do so at draft.patentpal.com. Here’s a list of the new features we added this past quarter.
Overview of new features:
- Customize phrases
- Upload illustrations
- Update figure labels
- Toggle between simple vs. verbose flowcharts
- Toggle figure text truncation
- PowerPoint export
- Tips and tutorials
1. Customize phrases in the brief summary
When drafting a patent, different clients may prefer different word or phrase choices. You can now configure multiple customization profiles and switch between them.
2. Upload and label illustrations
By default, PatentPal generates an abstract block diagram to communicate the hierarchy of concepts described in a claim or claim family.
But a block diagram is sometimes not enough. When describing a bicycle, we may want to show an illustration that can communicate the spatial arrangement of the claimed elements.
By right-clicking on a figure page, you can now upload an illustration and apply labels that correspond to the same technical concepts described in the specification.
You can also right-click on each label to change the direction of its callout line.
3. Update figure labels
By default, we generate a sequence of figures starting with FIG. 1. But you may want this figure to be FIG. 5 instead. You can now do this with a single action.
4. Toggle between simple vs. verbose flowcharts
PatentPal generates flowcharts based on method claim. By default, we now generate blocks containing the entire text describing each step of a method.
You can now turn this off in the customization settings:
With verbose steps turned off, the app will contextually capture just enough text to provide an illustrative description of each method step. The specification will still provide the full description.
5. Toggle for truncating figure text
By default, if a concept is too long to fit inside a block, we would truncate the text with ellipsis so that it would present more aesthetically:
This can now be turned off in the customization settings:
Turning off truncation would reveal the full text both in the preview and in the exported files:
6. Export figures into PowerPoint
We started by supporting exporting figures into Visio. For practitioners who do not use Visio, we now support exporting into PowerPoint under the Download menu:
Here’s how the exported figures look in PPT:
7. Tips and tutorials
First-time users are given help tips to guide them on how to use the app.
You can also click on Help under the main menu to bring up these tips at anytime for some quick guidance.
Finally, clicking on Tutorials will take you to our YouTube channel. We already have some videos for some of the features we’ve added in the past and we will be adding more videos in the future as well. Please subscribe to our channel to get the latest updates.
That’s it for now! Thanks again for everyone’s feedback and support. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions at info@patentpal.com. You can also try the app yourself at draft.patentpal.com.
