The operating model
An instruction arrives the way instructions have always arrived.
What happens next is the difference: the package reaches a professional ready for a decision, rather than ready for assembly.
Humans practise law. Rules protect deadlines. Jidoka runs the docket.
The full lifecycle
Instruction to ongoing monitoring
Sixteen stages. Every one of them writes to the same record, and every one of them is attributable — you can always see what was done, by whom or by what, and on the strength of which instruction. The client speaks three times: instructing, closing the information gap, and authorising the spend.
- 01InstructionAn ordinary email arrives. No portal, no form, no data entry.Client
- 02Client identifiedThe sender is matched to a client; the governing playbook is located.Jidoka
- 03Docket number assignedA matter record is opened under the firm's docket identity, and named for your systems where your playbook says how.Jidoka
- 04Matter data extractedApplicant, priority, references and scope are written to the record — each field carrying the sentence it came from.Jidoka
- 05Missing information checkedThe instruction is compared against the filing requirements, before anyone works on it.Jidoka
- 06Deadline rules appliedStatutory and internal dates are calculated from the event and the signed rule.Rules engine
- 07Client playbook appliedReporting recipients, approval thresholds, billing entity and reminder cadence attach to the matter.Rules engine
- 08Estimate preparedProfessional and official fees, itemised, against the applicant’s entity status.Jidoka
- 09Authority to proceed recordedWho authorised this work, when, and against which estimate.Client
- 10Filing package preparedForms drafted, data checked, supporting documents assembled, unusual requirements surfaced.Jidoka
- 11Professional reviewA JidokaIP patent, trademark or design professional reviews and approves what happens next.Professional
- 12FilingThe action is filed by the responsible JidokaIP professional.Professional
- 13Filing eventThe filing is written to the record as an event, with its confirmation and provenance.Jidoka
- 14Client reportIssued to your nominated recipients, in your format, without being asked.Jidoka
- 15InvoiceRaised against the matter and the billing entity your playbook specifies.Jidoka
- 16Ongoing monitoringThe next statutory action is identified and the matter stays under continuous watch.Jidoka
Two of the sixteen decide what the rest is worth: the authority recorded at 09, and the professional who takes responsibility at 11.
The boundary
What Jidoka does alone, and what it never does.
Every action is classified, and the classification is enforced in code rather than promised in prose.
- green
Acts alone
Files correspondence to the right matter. Calculates dates from signed rules. Sends acknowledgements, requests for missing information, reminders and escalations.
- amber
Prepares, then flags
An unusual Office communication. A possible applicant mismatch. An ambiguous instruction. A date no signed rule covers.
- red
Never without a person
Filing. Claim amendments. Abandonment. Any legal position. Any spend beyond your threshold.
It can be tightened for a client, or stopped entirely on one matter. It cannot be loosened past that line.
IPO communication workflow
What happens when the Office writes to us
An office communication is where most portfolios lose time — the report goes out late, the chase is inconsistent, and the drafting starts too close to the date. This sequence runs identically every time, which is what makes the date safe.
- 01FER receivedCommunication arrives from the Indian Patent Office.
- 02Event createdWritten to the docket with its source document attached.Jidoka
- 03Deadline engineResponse date calculated from the rule, not estimated.Rules engine
- 04Client reportThe report goes out to the recipients your playbook names.Jidoka
- 05Reminder workflow opensCadence and escalation contacts come from your playbook.Jidoka
- 06Instructions receivedYour response instructions arrive by email.Client
- 07Reminder workflow closesChasing stops the moment it is no longer needed.Jidoka
- 08DraftingClaim analysis, amendments and argument construction.Professional
- 09ReviewProfessional review of the substantive response.Professional
- 10Response filedFiled, recorded as an event, reported and invoiced.Professional
Every rule is drafted with its statutory citation and signed by a registered agent before it can compute a date.
Rules are versioned: a date calculated last year can be re-derived under the rule as it stood then.
Parallel proceedings
One docket. Several proceedings at once.
A single right rarely has a single workflow. Prosecution, opposition, renewal, recordal and appeal can all be live against the same matter, each with its own deadlines and its own reminder cadence — held together on one record instead of drifting into separate files that disagree with each other.
- ProsecutionFER response due 14 Nov 2026
- OppositionPre-grant opposition — evidence due 12 Feb 2027
- RenewalAnnuity payable 31 Mar 2027
- RecordalAssignment execution requested, due 28 Feb 2027
- AppealNot currently active
Exceptions
When it doesn’t go cleanly.
Most of docketing is the exceptions, so they have a designed path rather than an escape hatch.
Mail that cannot be matched to a client with certainty is never guessed at — it goes to a queue with the reason it stopped. A forwarded instruction resolves to the client who wrote it, never the firm that forwarded it. An instruction missing a document is chased before anyone works on it.
And if a source Jidoka watches stops answering, it says so. A monitor that quietly reports “no change” because a page moved is worse than no monitor.
The Jidoka Ledger
Every matter has a history that already exists.
The ledger is the chronological history of the matter — instructions, events, calculations, communications, approvals and filings in the order they happened. Nothing has to be reconstructed when somebody asks what occurred.
- ClientInstruction receivedEmail from instructing firm with one attachment
- JidokaClient identified, docket DY415-000421 assigned
- JidokaMatter data extractedApplicant, priority and PCT reference written to the record
- JidokaMissing information raisedInventor declaration outstanding — request issued to client
- Rules engineDeadline rules appliedThe statutory date and four dependent internal dates, calculated from the signed rule
- Rules engineClient playbook appliedReporting to two recipients; approval required above agreed threshold
- JidokaEstimate issuedProfessional and official fees itemised against the applicant’s entity status
- ClientInventor declaration receivedAttached to the record; information gap closed
- ClientAuthority to proceed recordedApproved by the instructing firm against the estimate of 12 Aug
- JidokaFiling package prepared
- ProfessionalProfessional review completePatent professional approved filing readiness
- ProfessionalFiledFiling event recorded with acknowledgement
- JidokaClient report and invoice issued
- JidokaProsecution workflow openedNext statutory action identified and monitored
Your clients’ unpublished inventions sit on this system.
Documents are stored encrypted, access is scoped per client, and nothing you send trains anything.
Begin
Send one instruction and watch it become a matter.
No portal, no onboarding, no data entry. Email the instruction the way you already work, and see what the docket does with it.