By the Templateez Team · Licensed Attorney · June 2026

Intellectual Property Intake Forms: What IP Attorneys Need to Capture at Client Intake

An intellectual property matter that starts with incomplete intake information does not just create extra work later — it creates malpractice exposure. A patent attorney who does not ask about prior public disclosures at the first meeting may not learn about a statutory bar until it is too late to file. A trademark attorney who does not capture the full list of goods and services ends up amending the application after filing, or worse, discovering at prosecution that the mark was filed in the wrong classes. An IP litigator who does not document the chain of title at intake may find out during discovery that the client does not actually own the rights they are trying to enforce.

IP intake is different from general litigation intake because the deadlines are unforgiving, the technical details are dense, and the difference between a strong case and a worthless one often depends on facts that the client does not realize are important. A thorough intellectual property intake form forces those facts to the surface at the one moment when they can still be acted on. Here is what that form should capture.

Matter type: routing the engagement correctly

IP is not one practice area — it is at least five distinct practice areas that share a statutory framework. The first function of your intake form is to identify which type of matter you are handling, because every field that follows depends on the answer.

Trademark matters include registration, opposition, cancellation, and infringement. A client who calls about "protecting my brand name" could need a federal registration, a response to an office action, a TTAB opposition, or an infringement demand letter. Each requires different information.

Patent matters span prosecution, infringement, design patents, utility patents, and provisionals. A client with an invention idea and a client being sued for patent infringement are in fundamentally different postures, even though both fall under "patent law."

Copyright matters cover registration, infringement, DMCA takedowns, and licensing. The intake requirements differ significantly depending on whether the client is an author seeking protection or a defendant accused of unauthorized use.

Trade secret matters involve misappropriation claims, NDA breaches, and employee departure situations. These matters are often urgent — the client calls because a former employee just joined a competitor and may be using proprietary information right now.

IP portfolio management encompasses audits, licensing programs, and due diligence for transactions. These are not litigation or prosecution — they are strategic advisory engagements that require a completely different set of intake questions focused on the scope and condition of an entire portfolio rather than a single asset.

Trademark intake: marks, classes, and commerce

Trademark intake is the most classification-intensive intake in IP practice. You are not just asking "what is the mark" — you are building the factual record that determines how the mark gets filed, searched, and defended.

• The mark itself — is it a word mark, design mark, sound mark, or color mark? A word mark protects the text regardless of stylization. A design mark protects a specific logo or graphic. Sound marks and color marks are less common but require specialized specimens and descriptions. If the mark has not been adopted yet, the intake should capture the proposed mark along with any alternatives the client is considering.
• Goods and services — every trademark application must identify the goods and services the mark covers, organized by Nice Classification. Clients rarely know what "class" their products fall into, but they can describe what they sell. Your intake should capture those descriptions in enough detail that you can identify the correct classes and draft the identification of goods and services.
• Use in commerce — the two critical dates are first use anywhere and first use in interstate commerce. These dates determine priority, and they must be supported by evidence. A client who says "we started using it in 2019" needs to be pressed on what "using it" means — was the mark displayed on goods that were sold? On a website offering services? In advertising only?
• Specimens of use — current specimens showing the mark as used in connection with each class of goods or services. For goods, this means labels, tags, packaging, or product displays. For services, this means advertising, website screenshots, or signage. Your intake should identify what specimens the client has available and whether they comply with USPTO requirements.
• Prior clearance search — has a trademark clearance search already been conducted? By whom? What did it find? If no search has been done, this is the first step before filing, and your intake should flag it.
• Registration status — is this an intent-to-use application, a use-based application, or is the mark already registered? If registered, capture the registration number and serial number. If there is a pending application, capture the serial number and current prosecution status.
• Geographic scope — is the client seeking protection in the United States only, or does the mark need international protection? If international, has the client considered the Madrid Protocol for centralized international filing? Which countries are priorities?
• Monitoring and enforcement — is the client watching for infringers? Do they have a watch service in place? Have they already identified potential infringers?
• TTAB proceedings — if the matter involves an opposition or cancellation, capture the proceeding number, the opposing party, the current procedural posture, and all deadlines.
• Domain names — has the client secured matching domain names? Are there third parties holding domains that incorporate the mark? Is a UDRP proceeding under consideration?

Patent intake: inventions, deadlines, and prior art

Patent intake carries the highest deadline risk of any IP matter type. Statutory bars are absolute — miss them and the right to file is gone permanently. Your intake form must surface these deadlines immediately.

• Invention description — what does the invention do, and how does it work? This is not the claim language — it is the client's plain-language explanation. A good intake captures enough technical detail that you can assess patentability and begin prior art research, without requiring the client to write a specification on the spot.
• Prior art — what exists that is similar? Has the client searched? Are they aware of competing products, published papers, or existing patents in the same space? Clients often know their competitive landscape better than any search database, but they will not volunteer this information unless asked directly.
• Inventors — all natural persons who contributed to the conception of the invention. Inventorship is a legal determination, not a business decision. The CEO does not become an inventor because they funded the project. A lab technician does become an inventor if they contributed to the inventive concept. Your intake should capture every person involved in the development process so inventorship can be properly assessed.
• Assignee — who owns the invention? Is there an employment agreement with an assignment clause? A university IP policy? A joint development agreement? The answer determines who files the application and who appears as the applicant.
• Filing deadline and statutory bars — has the invention been publicly disclosed, sold, offered for sale, or used publicly? If so, when? Under U.S. law, you have one year from the first public disclosure, sale, or offer for sale to file. Under most foreign laws, the deadline is the disclosure date itself — there is no grace period. This is the single most time-sensitive question on any IP intake form.
• Provisional application — has a provisional been filed? If so, capture the filing date and serial number. The provisional establishes a priority date but expires after twelve months if a non-provisional is not filed. That twelve-month deadline is non-extendable.
• Patent family history — is this a continuation, divisional, or continuation-in-part of an existing application? Capture the parent application numbers and filing dates. The family history determines priority dates and the scope of what can be claimed.
• Foreign filings — is the client seeking international protection? Has a PCT application been filed? Are there Paris Convention priority deadlines approaching? The twelve-month priority deadline from the earliest filing runs regardless of whether the client has made a decision about foreign markets.
• Claims scope — what specifically does the client want to protect? The broadest possible interpretation, or a narrow claim targeted at a specific commercial embodiment? This informs the claiming strategy and the scope of the prior art search.
• Technical drawings — are drawings available? Patent applications for mechanical and electrical inventions require drawings. If the client has CAD files, engineering sketches, or prototypes, capture what exists and what needs to be prepared.
• Trade secret alternative — should this invention be kept as a trade secret instead of patented? A patent requires full public disclosure. Some inventions — particularly manufacturing processes that cannot be reverse-engineered — are better protected as trade secrets indefinitely rather than disclosed in a patent that expires after twenty years.

Copyright intake: works, authorship, and registration

Copyright intake is less deadline-driven than patent intake, but the details around authorship and work-for-hire status are where cases are won or lost.

• Work type — literary, musical, dramatic, pictorial, audiovisual, sound recording, or architectural. The work type determines the registration form, the deposit requirements, and certain aspects of the scope of protection.
• Authorship — is the work by an individual author, joint authors, or is it a work made for hire? Work-for-hire status is a threshold question because it determines who the legal author is. If the work was created by an employee within the scope of employment, the employer is the author. If it was created by an independent contractor, work-for-hire status exists only if there is a written agreement and the work falls into one of nine statutory categories.
• Creation and publication dates — when was the work created, and has it been published? Published versus unpublished matters for registration procedures. The publication date also affects the term of protection for certain categories of works.
• Registration status — is the work registered, pending, or unregistered? For U.S. works, registration is a prerequisite to filing an infringement suit. Timely registration — within three months of publication or before the infringement begins — is a prerequisite to statutory damages and attorney fees. These timing questions should be front and center on the intake form.
• Deposit copy — the Copyright Office requires a deposit of the work itself with the registration application. Does the client have the work in a format suitable for deposit? For digital works, this is straightforward. For large-format or three-dimensional works, deposit requirements have specific alternatives.
• Fair use concerns — if the matter involves an infringement claim, is the accused use potentially protected by fair use? Capture the nature of the use, whether it is transformative, commercial or noncommercial, and how much of the work was used.
• DMCA issues — are infringing copies of the work available online? Has the client sent takedown notices? Have counter-notices been filed? DMCA takedown is often the client's first line of defense against online infringement, and many clients arrive at intake having already engaged in the notice-and-takedown process without legal guidance.
• Existing licenses — has the client licensed the work to anyone? Are there exclusive or nonexclusive licenses outstanding? Existing licenses affect standing, available remedies, and the practical scope of enforcement.

Trade secret intake: protection measures and breach facts

Trade secret matters are often the most urgent IP intake scenario. The client's competitive advantage may be actively leaking, and the window for injunctive relief is narrow. Your intake needs to establish two things immediately: that the information qualifies as a trade secret, and that reasonable measures were in place to protect it.

• Description of the secret — what is the trade secret, described in enough detail to identify it without disclosing it? This is a balancing act. You need enough specificity to assess the claim, but the intake form itself is a document that could be discoverable. Frame the description at the category level — "proprietary manufacturing process for compound X" rather than the process steps themselves.
• Reasonable protective measures — how has the client protected the information? NDAs with employees and contractors, physical access controls, digital access restrictions (passwords, encryption, need-to-know access), confidentiality markings on documents, and employee training programs. Under both the Defend Trade Secrets Act and state trade secret statutes, reasonable measures are an element of the claim. If the client has not taken reasonable steps to protect the information, it may not qualify as a trade secret regardless of its value.
• Access list — who has had access to the trade secret? Current employees, former employees, contractors, vendors, joint venture partners, licensees. The narrower the access list, the stronger the claim. A "trade secret" that has been shared with fifty people without NDAs is going to be difficult to protect.
• Breach facts — how was the information disclosed, and by whom? Did a former employee take documents when they left? Did a contractor share information with a competitor? Was there a data breach? Is the evidence circumstantial (the competitor suddenly launched an identical product) or direct (the client found their documents on the competitor's server)?
• Damages — what competitive harm has resulted? Lost revenue, lost customers, lost market position, cost of developing an alternative. Trade secret damages can also include the defendant's unjust enrichment.
• Statute of limitations — under the federal DTSA, the limitation period is three years from the date the misappropriation is discovered or should have been discovered. State statutes vary. Your intake should capture when the client first learned or suspected the misappropriation.

IP due diligence: portfolio-level intake for transactions

When the client is not enforcing or prosecuting a single asset but evaluating an entire IP portfolio in the context of a transaction, the intake requirements shift from depth on one asset to breadth across all asset classes.

• Transaction type — M&A, licensing deal, investment, or joint venture. Each transaction type drives different due diligence priorities. An acquirer cares about freedom to operate. A licensee cares about the scope and enforceability of the licensed rights. An investor cares about the strength and duration of the competitive moat.
• Portfolio scope — what asset types are in play? Patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, domain names. A thorough intake identifies which categories exist and how many assets are in each category, even if the detailed diligence comes later.
• Chain of title — are assignments clean? Have all inventors assigned their rights? Were acquisition-related IP assignments properly recorded with the USPTO? Broken chains of title are one of the most common due diligence findings, and they can delay or kill a transaction.
• Encumbrances — are there existing licenses, liens, pledges, or security interests on any IP assets? An exclusive license granted to a third party significantly reduces the value of the underlying asset to an acquirer. A UCC lien filed against a patent portfolio means a secured creditor has priority.
• Pending litigation — is any IP in the portfolio currently in suit, either as plaintiff or defendant? Pending litigation affects valuation, risk allocation, and often requires specific representations and indemnities in the transaction documents.
• Expiration dates — when do patents expire? When are trademark renewals due? A patent portfolio where the key assets expire in eighteen months has a very different value than one with twelve years of remaining term.
• Freedom to operate — does the target's product or service infringe any third-party IP? This is often the most expensive and time-consuming piece of IP due diligence, and the intake should determine whether an FTO analysis is within scope and, if so, which products or services should be analyzed.

IP due diligence often intersects with the broader corporate transaction. If your firm is also handling the entity-level work, the corporate formation intake guide covers the organizational and governance questions that run parallel to the IP portfolio review.

Building the IP engagement from day one

Intellectual property intake is not a generic client information sheet with "describe your legal issue" at the bottom. It is a structured extraction of the specific facts that determine whether rights exist, whether deadlines have been missed, and whether the client's position is strong enough to pursue. A trademark client who walks in wanting to register a mark may walk out learning that a clearance search should come first. A patent client who calls with an invention idea may need to hear that their public presentation six months ago started a clock that expires in six months. A trade secret client may need an emergency TRO motion filed before the intake meeting is even over.

Every one of those outcomes depends on asking the right questions at the right time. A well-structured intake form ensures those questions get asked consistently, regardless of which attorney takes the meeting, how busy the practice is, or how much the client thinks they already know about what they need.

If you handle IP matters alongside a broader litigation or corporate practice, the Legal Bundle includes intellectual property alongside 37 other legal practice areas, each with matter-specific intake fields.