AI Orchestrated IP Practice Management
Reduce Administrative Burden. Focus on Higher-Value IP Work.
CadenceIP is an expertise-learning, AI-powered practice management platform for patent and trade mark professionals, helping teams streamline matter workflows, automate routine administration, and deliver higher-value work with greater speed, consistency and control.
- App. No.
- PCT/AU2025/070512
- Filing date
- 14 Oct 2025
- Priority appl.
- AU 2024 905217
- Priority date
- 16 Oct 2024
- Article 19
- 16 Feb 2026
- Article 34
- 16 Aug 2026
- 30-month
- 16 Apr 2027
18 April 2026
| Subject | Issuance of the Written Opinion |
| PCT Application | PCT/AU2025/070512 |
| Title | Adjustable mounting bracket for rooftop solar arrays |
| Our Ref | CIP26-0147 |
Dear John,
We have now received the search and written opinion in respect of your PCT application no. PCT/AU2025/070512.
The examiner has conceded that claims 2, 5, 16–23 and 32 are novel over the cited art. However, all claims have been objected to as lacking inventive step in light of references D1 and D3.
Options for next steps include filing Article 19 claims amendments by 16 February 2026 or Filing a Demand for International Preliminary examination along with Article 34 claim amendments if necessary by the deadline of 16 August 2026.
Please confirm whether you wish us to proceed on this basis.
Yours sincerely,
Embedded, context-aware AI with built-in tools to handle the admin for you — reading documents and emails, drafting correspondence, generating documents, raising invoices, completing tasks, and moving matters forward, all with your review before anything is sent or done.
AI assistance
AI that proposes. You who approve.
An AI assistant that already knows the matter — its documents, emails, deadlines, and parties — and that drafts work for you to review, never for you to clean up after.
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Knows the matter
- The AI has the documents, emails, file notes, fields, and parties for the matter you're looking at. Ask in plain English — no "let me give you context first".
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Proposes, never just executes
- AI can draft an email, propose a document, suggest a task, recommend a step change — but it never sends or files anything without your sign-off.
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Self-learning knowledge base
- Cadence quietly extracts substantive expertise from your correspondence and feeds it back into the AI. Future drafts reflect your firm's reasoning, not generic AI defaults.
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Bring your own AI
- Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini using your own account. No vendor lock-in, no surprises about which AI is reading your client data.
Self-learning knowledge base
Your firm's expertise, captured as you work
Cadence IP watches how your attorneys handle each matter type and quietly builds a knowledge base of the reasoning, language, and patterns your firm uses. Future drafts — and future AI suggestions — reflect your standards, not generic AI defaults.
PCT national-phase entry must be effected within 30 months of the earliest priority date in most member states. Some offices (e.g. Luxembourg, Tanzania) apply a 20-month deadline absent Chapter II demand. Practitioners should diary the 30-month deadline as the default and flag jurisdiction-specific exceptions on the matter.
Amendments to claims under Article 19 may be filed once with the International Bureau within two months from transmittal of the international search report, or 16 months from priority — whichever is later. The amendments are published with the international application but do not bind national-phase examination.
Amendments to the claims, description and drawings under Article 34 may be filed with the International Preliminary Examining Authority at the time of filing the demand or at any time before the international preliminary examination report is established. Amendments must not go beyond the disclosure in the application as filed and must be accompanied by a letter identifying the differences and explaining the basis for the amendments. No fee is payable for Article 34 amendments.
A PCT international application must be filed within 12 months of the earliest priority date (typically the provisional filing date) under the Paris Convention. This is a strict deadline — if missed, the applicant loses the right to claim priority from the earlier filing.
Where the international application is filed within two months of the expiry of the priority period, restoration of the right of priority is available under PCT Rule 26bis.3. Designated offices apply one of two standards: the stricter "due care" criterion (EPO, IP Australia, EP designated states) requires evidence that all reasonable care was taken to meet the deadline; the more lenient "unintentional" standard (USPTO, JPO) requires only that the failure to meet the deadline was unintentional.
Professional fees for drafting and filing a PCT application based on an Australian provisional specification are approximately $8,000. The official PCT filing fee (international filing fee plus search fee for IP Australia as ISA) is approximately $4,000. These figures are current estimates and may vary depending on the complexity of the specification and applicable fee reductions.
Where the PCT applicant has obtained an International-type search (ITS) on the underlying provisional application, the ISA may base its Written Opinion on those earlier search results. Under PCT Rule 16.3, when the ISA benefits from an earlier search, a partial refund of 25–50% of the search fee may be available depending on the extent to which the Authority benefits from the earlier search.
The Madrid System allows a trade mark owner to seek protection in multiple member countries through a single international application filed via WIPO. The international application must be based on a basic application or registration in the Office of origin. While filing is centralised, substantive rights are determined country by country — each designated Office may examine and refuse under its own local law.
Additional member countries can be added to an existing international registration at any time by filing a subsequent designation (Form MM4) through the Office of origin or directly with WIPO. The subsequent designation is recorded in the International Register, published in the WIPO Gazette, and notified to each newly designated Office. Fees apply per designated territory. This is useful when markets expand or new countries join the Madrid Protocol.
International registrations are renewed in 10-year periods. WIPO provides centralised management for renewals, changes of name or address, ownership changes, and subsequent designations to add further member countries. Fees vary by designated territory — some members charge individual fees — so practitioners should check the WIPO fee calculator before filing.
"Central attack" is the vulnerability during the five-year dependency period: if the basic mark is cancelled, the international registration can be cancelled to the same extent across all designated territories. The risk extends to partial cancellation (e.g. for some goods/services only). Best practice is to base the Madrid filing on a registration rather than a pending application and to vigorously defend any opposition or cancellation action against the basic mark.
If central attack succeeds and the international registration is cancelled, the former holder may file national or regional applications for the same mark in the designated territories where the registration had effect. Transformed applications preserve the original filing date and priority claim. Key requirements: applications must be filed within three months of cancellation, must stay within the original goods/services for each territory, and must comply with local law and fees. Transformation leaves the Madrid route — each application proceeds as a direct national filing.
A design must be new and distinctive (or have individual character, depending on jurisdiction) at the filing date. Prior disclosure — including display at trade fairs, publication online, or offering for sale — can destroy novelty. Unlike patents, many design systems assess novelty by visual impression rather than functional features.
The Hague System allows a design owner to file a single international application with WIPO designating multiple member countries. Up to 100 designs in the same Locarno class can be included in one application. Each designated Office examines under its own law and may issue a refusal. The international registration is renewable in 5-year periods, subject to the maximum term permitted by each designated territory.
Under the Hague System, the applicant may request deferment of publication for up to 30 months from the filing date (or priority date). This allows the design to remain confidential while still securing a filing date — useful when a product launch has not yet occurred. The EU registered community design also allows deferment for up to 30 months.
Australia introduced a broader 12-month grace period for designs effective 10 March 2022, allowing the designer's own prior disclosure without destroying novelty. The United States also generally provides a 12-month grace period from the date of the designer's own disclosure. Both grace periods are measured from the date of disclosure, not the priority date.
The Paris Convention priority period for designs is 6 months from the filing date of the first application (shorter than the 12-month period for patents). To claim priority from an earlier Australian design filing in a subsequent US application, the US application must be filed within this 6-month window. Filing the Australian application first and claiming priority in the US can be a cost-effective sequencing strategy.
The knowledge base is built per matter type — patents, trademarks, designs, oppositions — so the AI's reasoning matches the practice area you're working in. Train it on outbound emails, inbound questions, generated documents, or any combination. Edit it whenever you like.
Practice management
Everything else your IP practice runs on
Beyond AI: the matter management, deadlines, documents, billing, and automations that keep your practice moving every day.
${date}
Subject: Issuance of the Written Opinion
PCT Application: ${field.application_number}
Title: ${matter.title}
Our Ref: ${matter.reference}
Dear ${role.applicant.first_name},
We have now received the search and written opinion in respect of your PCT application no. ${field.application_number}…
| Description | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reporting Written Opinion · Fixed fee | 1 | A$480.00 | A$480.00 |
| Attorney time — review of WO 1.5h @ A$420/h · 17 Apr 2026 | 1.5 | A$420.00 | A$630.00 |
| Disbursement: foreign agent fees US$320 @ 1.52 + 2.5% spread | 1 | A$498.56 | A$498.56 |
| Subtotal | A$1,608.56 | ||
| GST (10%) | A$160.86 | ||
| Total | A$1,769.42 | ||
Comprehensive platform
Built for every aspect of IP management
Cadence IP brings the whole practice into one system. No more stitched-together tools, no more parallel directories, no more spreadsheets.
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Calculated deadlines
- Statutory deadlines that update themselves the moment a reference date changes — never manually maintained, never wrong.
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Configurable matter types
- Patents, trademarks, designs, oppositions — define the lifecycle, fields, parties, and rules that fit your practice.
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Document generation
- Generate from your existing Word templates. Variables fill in automatically; output as polished PDF.
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Invoicing with FX disbursements
- Time entries, fixed fees, and foreign-agent recharges with exchange-rate conversion handled.
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Xero accounting sync
- Invoices and bills push directly to Xero with the right codes, branding, and tracking categories.
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Email + SMS in one timeline
- Inbound and outbound email captured automatically. Two-way SMS in the same matter timeline.
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Automation engine
- Trigger work on step changes, document arrival, scheduled dates. Combine conditions however you need.
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Approval gates
- Mark sensitive automation actions as needing approval. Human review before anything goes out the door.
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Live timer & time recording
- One-click timer in the sidebar. Stop converts to a billable entry at the right hourly rate — no double-entry between time-tracking and billing.
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Practice-wide calendar
- Every task and deadline across every matter, in a single monthly view. One screen tells you what's due this week.
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Custom fields per matter type
- Application numbers, classifications, examiner names, filing dates — capture what your practice needs.
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Saved data views
- Build "open patents", "everything overdue", "renewals due this quarter". Save them, share by URL, export to CSV.
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Embeddable intake forms
- Capture new work directly from your website. Submissions land in an approval queue, not auto-created matters.
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Unified contact library
- Clients, inventors, attorneys, foreign agents. Roles defined per matter type so the right party fills the right slot.
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Email signature builder
- Professional signatures for every team member, displaying correctly in every email client.
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Spotlight search
- Press Cmd/Ctrl+K to search every matter, contact, task, and field value across the firm.
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CSV import & migration
- Move from your existing system with dry-run validation, background processing, and full audit history.
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Dropbox folder sync
- Matter folders created automatically with your firm's standard structure. Documents and emails sync over.
Pricing
Pricing that fits your firm
Start with a 7-day free trial. No credit card required. Move up or down as your firm grows.
Solo
Perfect for solo practitioners and small practices.
$49 /month
- Up to 200 active matters
- 1 user
- Deadline tracking & calendar
- Document generation
- Email integration
- CSV import & export
- Intake forms
Professional
Most popular
For growing firms that need the full suite.
$99 /month
- Unlimited matters
- Up to 5 users
- Everything in Solo, plus:
- Workflow automations
- Time recording & billing
- Xero accounting integration
- AI-powered features
- Dropbox integration
Enterprise
For large firms and in-house IP departments.
Custom
- Everything in Professional
- Unlimited users
- Dedicated onboarding
- Data migration assistance
- Custom integrations
Frequently asked questions
- What types of IP does Cadence IP support?
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Cadence IP supports patents, trademarks, designs, and any other IP type you need. Matter types are fully configurable — you define the steps, fields, roles, and automations that match your practice.
- Can I import data from my current system?
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Yes. Cadence IP includes a comprehensive CSV import covering contacts, matters, roles, field values, tasks, and file notes. A dry-run validation step ensures everything is correct before committing.
- Which AI provider does Cadence IP use?
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You choose. Plug in your own Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, or Google Gemini account using your own API key, and select the specific model you want to run. There's no vendor lock-in, no markup on AI usage, and no surprises about which provider is reading your client data — you control it.
- How does the AI assistant work?
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The AI works inside each matter with full context — documents, emails, file notes, fields, and parties. It can draft emails, propose documents, suggest tasks, and recommend step changes, but it never sends or files anything without your approval.
- How does the automation engine work?
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Define triggers (step changes, field updates, schedules, incoming email) and actions (create tasks, send emails, generate documents, update fields). Automations run automatically with optional approval queues for sensitive actions.
- What accounting integrations are available?
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Cadence IP integrates directly with Xero for invoice creation, branding themes, account codes, and tax types. Additional accounting integrations are planned.
- Can I customise the fields for each matter type?
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Absolutely. Each matter type can have its own custom fields (text, number, date, calculated date, list), steps with allowed transitions, roles, document templates, email templates, and automations.
- How does the knowledge base work?
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Cadence IP watches how your attorneys handle each matter type and quietly extracts substantive expertise from your correspondence. Future AI suggestions reflect your firm's reasoning, language, and standards. You can edit the knowledge base at any time.
Ready to modernise your IP practice?
Start with a 7-day free trial. No credit card. Move at your own pace.