Claims

The Claims page is where you draft, edit, and manage the claim set for your application. Each claim is its own rich-text editor with structural awareness — Nodes-IP understands the preamble, transition phrase, and individual limitations, and uses that understanding to power formatting, references, diagnostics, and assistant edits.

Automatic structuring

You write claims as plain prose. Nodes-IP parses what you type and lays it out in proper claim form automatically:

The preamble (everything up to the transition phrase) is set off as the opening line.
The transition phrase — comprising, consisting of, wherein, etc. — is detected automatically.
The limitations are split at each semicolon and rendered as a lettered list (a), (b), (c) …

You don't need to add the letters yourself, format the indentation, or hand-build a list. Paste in a claim from anywhere — a draft, a granted patent, a generated suggestion — and the editor restructures it on the fly.

List view and tree view

Use the layout toggle in the page header to switch between two ways of looking at the same claim set:

List view shows claims in their numbered order, top to bottom. This is the default and matches how the claims will appear on the printed page.
Tree view groups dependent claims under their parent, so you can see the dependency hierarchy at a glance. A claim that depends on multiple parents appears once under each parent.

Drag-and-drop reordering works in both views. In tree view, dragging a claim moves its whole subtree as a block, so child claims always stay under their parent.

To reorder, hold Ctrl (Windows / Linux) / ⌘ (macOS) and drag from anywhere on the claim. While the modifier is held, right-clicking anywhere on the claim also opens the claim actions menu (add claim below, add dependent claim, copy, show parsed result, delete). Without the modifier held, clicks and right-clicks stay inside the text so you can select and edit normally. The same actions menu is always available from the small ⋯ button that appears next to the claim number on hover.

Renumbering

Claim numbers are assigned automatically based on order. When you add, remove, or reorder claims, every claim renumbers in place — including any inline references to those claims elsewhere in your application (see Smart references below).

You never edit a claim number by hand. To change a claim's number, change its position.

Automatic checks

Nodes-IP runs diagnostics on the claim set as you type and surfaces issues in the page header and inline on each claim. The checks are structural rules that run on every keystroke — they cost nothing and update without delay.

Each check can be turned on or off individually under Settings → Claims (reachable from the View menu in the page header), where they're grouped by category in collapsible sections. Diagnostics are advisory and never block you from saving a claim. A few checks are off by default because they cover stylistic preferences or fee notices rather than substantive defects; turn them on in Settings if you want them.

References

Orphaned references — an inline claim chip points at a claim that no longer exists.

Dependencies

Broken dependencies — a claim depends on a number that doesn't exist.
Self-dependency — a claim lists itself as a parent.
Circular dependencies — claims form a cycle (A → B → A).
Forward dependencies — a claim depends on a claim that comes later in the set.
Multi-on-multi — a multi-dependent claim depends on another multi-dependent claim (rejected by most patent offices).
Insufficient differentiation — a dependent claim adds no apparent limitation beyond its parent (35 USC 112(d) "must further limit").
Multi-dep claim using "and" (US only) — a multi-dependent claim joins its parents with and instead of or; 35 USC 112(e) requires the alternative form.
Category mismatch — a dependent claim's category (system / method / use) differs from its parent's.

Structure

Missing preamble — the claim opens with a transition phrase but has no preamble noun.
No transition phrase — the claim has no recognisable comprising / wherein / consisting of transition.
Mixed transition phrases — the claim uses more than one main transition phrase (e.g. comprising and consisting of).
Long claim — the claim exceeds 250 words; consider splitting limitations into dependent claims.
Multiple independent claims of the same category (EP only) — more than one independent claim of the same category (apparatus / method / use); EPO Rule 43(2).

Clarity

Relative term — vague qualifiers like substantially, approximately, or about that may be objected to under EPC Article 84 / 35 USC 112(b).
Subjective term — easy, fast, user-friendly, optimal, and similar qualifiers that lack objective measure.
Optional language in claim — preferably, optionally, may be, can be inside a claim creates ambiguous scope; the EPO routinely objects.
and/or usage — A and/or B is ambiguous; use Markush form (at least one of A and B) or split into alternatives.
Ambiguous transition — having, including, or containing as the main transition has uncertain open/closed semantics; prefer comprising or consisting of.
Consisting essentially of — flags consisting essentially of for review; triggers a heightened spec-support requirement.

Drafting

Means-plus-function (US only) — means / step for X-ing invokes 35 USC 112(f) interpretation; the claim is limited to the corresponding structure in the spec.
Jepson claim form (US only) — wherein the improvement comprises admits the preamble as prior art.
Functional language — configured to, adapted to, operable to, capable of describe what an element does rather than what it is; review whether structural recitation is preferable.
EP independent claim missing two-part form (EP only, off by default) — independent claim does not use characterised in that / characterized in that (EPO Rule 43(1)).

Claim count & fees

EP claim count threshold (EP only, off by default) — claim set exceeds 15 claims; EPO charges excess-claim fees beyond the 15th.
US claim count threshold (US only, off by default) — claim set exceeds 3 independent or 20 total claims; USPTO charges excess fees beyond those thresholds.

Find and replace

Press <kbd>Cmd</kbd>+<kbd>F</kbd> (or <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>F</kbd>) to open the find-and-replace panel in the top-right of the claim list. Type a phrase to see every match highlighted in the editors and a live count across the set. Toggle Aa (match case) or Ab (whole word) to narrow the search, then choose Replace all to apply the substitution to every claim that contains a match. Inline reference chips (claims, figures, elements) are left intact — only the surrounding prose is rewritten. Press <kbd>Esc</kbd> to close.

Header stats

The page header shows a live readout of the claim set: total claim count and word count across the resolved prose, with the independent vs. dependent split available on hover. Excess-claim thresholds (more than 3 independent or 20 total at the USPTO; more than 15 total at the EPO) are surfaced as advisory diagnostics in the issues panel rather than in the header readout.

Smart references that survive renumbering

When you write claim 1 (or claims 2 and 3, or any of claims 4–7) inside a claim, Nodes-IP replaces the text with a chip that points at the underlying claim, not the number. The chip stays linked even when the claim list is reordered or renumbered, so:

Dragging claim 5 to the top updates every reference to it everywhere — in other claims, in the description, in figure callouts.
Deleting a referenced claim doesn't silently break the link. The reference becomes an orphaned chip (highlighted amber) and shows up in diagnostics so you can fix it.
Phrasing is preserved. If you wrote "claims 4–7", it stays as a range; if you wrote "claims 4, 5 or 7", it stays as a list. You stay in control of legal phrasing — Nodes-IP only updates the numbers.

The same chip system works for figure references (FIG. 2), reference signs (element names from your drawings), and section references (the Background). See the References tab for a full overview of how chips work across every surface.

The assistant can read and write claims

The right-hand assistant panel has full read access to your claim set and can edit it on your behalf. You can ask it to:

Draft new claims — independent or dependent, method or apparatus, in any jurisdiction's preferred style.
Refine existing claims — broaden, narrow, fix antecedent basis, restructure limitations, swap transition phrases.
Audit the set — check for support in the description, surface novel features, suggest dependent claims to add.
Restructure the set — add, edit, and delete claims to group related ones, split an independent claim into separate trees, or rework dependency chains.

Edits the assistant proposes show up as pending changes on the affected claim — you review the diff and accept or reject before anything is saved. The assistant never silently overwrites your work.