Patent attorneys and in-house counsel already live inside a lot of tools: docketing systems, prior art databases, drafting software, email. Adding another tab for patent research usually means re-explaining context you already had in your head. IP Author's new connector for Claude removes that step. Once connected, you can search a global patent corpus, run prior art or freedom-to-operate checks, pull US prosecution history, or draft a full patent application, all from inside a Claude conversation, without copying data back and forth between apps.
This is built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open standard that lets AI assistants call out to external tools and data sources during a conversation. IP Author is one of the connectors available through it.
What You Need Before Connecting
- An active IP Author account on a subscription plan that includes connector access. Some tools may be limited depending on your plan.
- Your account authorized to use the Claude connector. If you do not see the option to connect, contact your IP Author account admin or support@ipauthor.com.
How to Connect
- Go to Settings, then Connectors in Claude.ai (available on Team and Enterprise plans), or have your organization admin add it from Organization settings, then Connectors.
- Find "IP Author" in the connector list and select Connect.
- Log in with your IP Author account credentials through the standard OAuth flow and approve the requested access.
- Ask Claude to use it, for example: "Search for patents on foldable phone hinges filed by Samsung in the last 5 years."
No API keys or manual configuration are required. Authentication runs through the OAuth login above.
What's Live Today
The current tool set covers the core research, analysis, and drafting workflow patent teams use most often:
| Capability | Status |
|---|---|
| Global patent corpus search by keyword, assignee, classification, and date, with family-deduped results | Live |
| Prior art and invalidity searches across patents and non-patent literature | Live |
| Freedom-to-operate scans, down to element-by-element clearance reads | Live |
| Competitive landscape and whitespace reports, from a quick headline scan to a full interactive report | Live |
| Evidence-of-use claim charts built from product evidence found on the open web | Live |
| Standards-essentiality (SEP) analysis | Live |
| US prosecution intelligence: file wrappers, office actions, examiner comparisons, AI-assisted strategy, and company-level portfolio stats | Live |
| Drafting a complete patent application from an invention disclosure, including a full claim set, filing-ready document, and figures, across utility, provisional, PCT, continuation, divisional, and design filings | Live |
Where It's Going
IP Author is building out the rest of the patent lifecycle on the same platform. Planned additions include invention harvesting and disclosure capture, PTAB and PACER litigation data, docketing with deadline and annuity alerts, licensing and damages modeling, and a workflow layer for composing and hosting custom agents on top of these tools. Today's tool set covers research, analysis, and drafting end to end. More of the lifecycle will land as it ships.
Data Handling and Privacy
Data accessed or generated through the connector is handled under the same ownership, security, and retention terms as the IP Author web application. For the specific scope of what IP Author does and does not control once a query reaches Claude, see Section 12, "AI Assistant / MCP Connector Access," in the IP Author Privacy Policy.
Support
Questions or issues connecting: support@ipauthor.com.