Free guide

Claude for Legal:
IP Plugin

Set it up the right way, then get more out of every one of its 12 skills.

9setup steps
12skills
36ready prompts
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Demo data. A fictional firm and fictional clients.

How it works

One interview, then every skill knows your practice

Install

Add the IP Legal plugin to Claude.

Setup interview

It asks how your practice runs and reads the documents you already have.

The hubYour practice profile

A plain-English file you can read and edit.

12 skills

Every skill reads the profile before it does anything.

Part 1

Set it up, step by step

About 10 to 15 minutes for the full interview. Skip it and every skill stops and sends you back to it.

  1. 1

    Get Claude Desktop with Cowork

    Install Claude Desktop from claude.com/download and make sure your account has access to Claude Cowork.

    Why The plugin installs inside Cowork, so Cowork has to be on your account first.

    Anthropic's Quick Start in the claude-for-legal repo links an install video for Cowork.

  2. 2

    Install the IP plugin

    Open the Cowork tab, click Customize in the left sidebar, click Browse plugins, and install ip-legal. If your firm gave you the plugin as a zipped folder, upload it from the same screen instead.

    Why Installing gives you the 12 IP skills as slash commands and the renewal watcher agent.

    Type / in the chat box and check that the /ip-legal: commands appear. In Claude Code the documented fix for Command not found is a restart; if the commands do not show in Cowork, close and reopen the app.

  3. 3

    Choose user scope, not project scope

    If you are asked whether to install for this project only or for all projects, choose all projects (user scope).

    Why Project scope blocks the plugin from reading files outside the project folder, like a contract in Documents or a client file in Dropbox.

    User scope gives the plugin no extra access: it still reads only files you point it at. If a skill says it cannot read a file, project scope is the usual cause, and the fix is to uninstall and reinstall user-scoped.

  4. 4

    Connect your research tools

    Go to Settings, then Connectors, and add CourtListener (public, API key optional). If your firm subscribes to Descrybe or Solve Intelligence, add and sign in to those the same way.

    Why Without a research tool every citation comes from training data, is tagged [verify], and the reviewer note above each deliverable says sources were not verified.

    Without Solve Intelligence, FTO triage prints No patent database search was run and works only from patents you name. Clearance does the same for marks. If you connect a tool after setup, run /ip-legal:cold-start-interview --check-integrations so your profile notices.

  5. 5

    Run the setup interview and pick Full

    Paste the command below. When it asks quick or full, answer Full, and when it asks your practice setting, pick Midsize / large firm.

    /ip-legal:cold-start-interview

    Why Every skill stops until this interview has written your practice profile, and there is no generic fallback.

    Full takes about 10 to 15 minutes and asks 2 or 3 questions at a time. The private-practice setting builds your approval chain and turns on matter workspaces. Say pause at any point and it saves your answers so you can resume later.

  6. 6

    Hand it the documents you already have

    When it asks, attach files, give file paths or share Drive links for: your portfolio list or IP management export, brand guidelines, cease and desist template, enforcement playbook, OSS policy, and a standard agreement with your IP clauses. Say skip for anything you do not have.

    Why It extracts your real enforcement triggers, approvers and clause positions from the documents instead of making you retype them, and it points out where the documents differ from what you told it.

    The portfolio export seeds the renewal register, portfolio.yaml, in the same config folder.

  7. 7

    Read the profile it wrote

    Open ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/ip-legal/CLAUDE.md, or ask Claude to show it to you, and correct anything it got wrong.

    Why Every skill reads this file before it does anything, so a wrong approver or jurisdiction here shows up in every output.

    It is plain English, not a config file, and it survives plugin updates. The CLAUDE.md inside the plugin folder is only a template that gets replaced on every update. Company facts go to company-profile.md one folder up, shared with the other legal plugins.

  8. 8

    First useful run: your portfolio

    Paste the command below with no flags to see every deadline in the next 90 days, grouped by urgency.

    /ip-legal:portfolio

    Why The setup interview itself suggests this first: it is the fastest check on whether the plugin's register matches your real docket.

    Every report closes with a line telling you to verify each deadline against USPTO TSDR, WIPO or the relevant registry before filing or paying. The register is a working copy, not the system of record.

  9. 9

    Change one thing later with customize

    Paste the command below and name the change, for example a new watched mark or a different approver. It shows the current value, asks for the new one, explains what changes downstream, confirms, and writes it.

    /ip-legal:customize

    Why You adjust one position without re-running the whole interview or editing the file by hand.

    For a full re-interview use /ip-legal:cold-start-interview --redo, which shows a diff before it overwrites.

Part 2

The 12 skills, and prompts that get more out of each

Each prompt goes past the bare command: the right attachments, the modes the skill supports, and a useful follow-up. Paste it into Claude and fill the brackets.

01
Portfolio and deadlines

Portfolio

/ip-legal:portfolio

Registration and renewal tracker: what's due, what's filed, what needs action.

Have ready A finished practice profile and a register, seeded from your docket export at setup or built with --add. An IP management system connection is optional.

Modes
  • --report --days N Deadline report for a window you choose (30, 60, 90 or 180 days). No flags means a 90-day report.
  • --add Walks you through adding one asset: type, jurisdiction, numbers, dates, owner, outside counsel.
  • --update Records a completed filing or fee payment, a status change, or a sync with your IP management system.
  • --audit Health check beyond deadlines: grace and lapsed items, stale applications, use in commerce before a Section 8, owner name mismatches, patents expiring in 24 months, unwatched marks.
  • --rebuild Rebuilds the register from scratch from your IP management system, an export, or an interactive walk-through.
Prompts that get more out of it
1Six-month look ahead, as a dashboard
/ip-legal:portfolio --report --days 180
Then build the dashboard view: counts by status, a deadline timeline, and a sortable table with jurisdiction, type and next action date.

A 180-day window gives you time to gather specimens and client instructions, and the skill builds the dashboard when you ask for it.

2Audit before you trust the register
/ip-legal:portfolio --audit
Put these first: marks with a Section 8 declaration of use coming up where use in commerce is uncertain, the same owner spelled differently across assets, and trademark applications pending more than 18 months.

The audit catches what a deadline report cannot: use problems, ownership splits and stale applications.

3Docket a completed filing
/ip-legal:portfolio --update
We completed the Section 8 declaration of use for [MARK], US Reg. No. [number], on [date]. Mark it filed and show me the next deadline in its cycle.

Recording the filing rolls the docket forward to the next deadline in the cycle, the combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal at year 10.

02
Contracts

IP clause review

/ip-legal:ip-clause-review

Reviews IP clauses in MSAs, SOWs, licenses and contractor agreements: assignment, license grants, warranties, indemnities, OSS reps.

Have ready The agreement as a file, a Drive link or pasted text, and which side your client is on for IP (granting, receiving or both).

Prompts that get more out of it
1Contractor or SOW: assignment first
/ip-legal:ip-clause-review [attach the contractor agreement or SOW]
[client] is on the receiving side for IP. Start with the assignment gap check: present-tense assignment, further assurances, the moral rights waiver, and whether the background IP definition swallows the foreground IP in the deliverables.

Naming the side skips a question, and the assignment gap is the one that surfaces in diligence years later.

2Out-license: do the clauses hold together
/ip-legal:ip-clause-review [attach the license agreement]
[client] is the licensor. Run the cross-clause consistency check: does the warranty cover everything the license grant covers, does the indemnity back the warranty, and does termination pull the license back? Keep redlines surgical.

IP clauses fail as a system, and surgical redlines are a markup the other side can actually accept.

3MSA and SOW read together
/ip-legal:ip-clause-review [attach the MSA] [attach the SOW]
Review IP ownership across both documents, flag any conflict between them, and check whether the vendor has to disclose AI use in the deliverables.

Ownership quietly flips where the MSA and SOW disagree, and the AI-use check covers deliverables whose copyright status is unsettled.

03
Brand

Clearance

/ip-legal:clearance

First-pass trademark clearance: knockout check plus a likelihood-of-confusion first pass. An attorney still signs off.

Have ready The exact mark and any stylization, the goods or services in plain words, Nice classes if you know them, target jurisdictions, and how the mark will appear in use.

Modes
  • provisional Say this if your profile is not set up yet: it runs on generic US defaults and tags every output [PROVISIONAL].
Prompts that get more out of it
1Answer the whole intake in one message
/ip-legal:clearance
Proposed mark: [MARK], word mark, no stylization.
Goods and services: [what the customer actually buys].
Classes: suggest the Nice classes and confirm them with me before you search.
Jurisdictions: US and [EU or other].
In use it will appear next to [tagline or product name].

All 5 intake answers up front save a round of questions, and naming a non-US jurisdiction brings in the translation and transliteration sweep.

2Sweep the adjacent families
Before you close this out, list 3 to 5 adjacent word families a competitor would pick if [MARK] were taken, including phonetic twins, and sweep each one with whatever search tool is connected.

The skill's own rule: an exact-match check misses the marks a competitor adopted because yours was taken.

3Scope the full search
Turn the next steps into a full search request for our search vendor, naming every registry, jurisdiction and adjacent family this first pass did not cover.

A first pass never concludes a mark is clear, so the useful next move is a full search scoped to the gaps.

04
Enforcement

Infringement triage

/ip-legal:infringement-triage

Triage across trademark, copyright, patent and trade secret: the factors cutting each way, not a finding.

Have ready Which right is at issue, whether your client is the senior or the accused party, the jurisdiction, any clock running, and the evidence (screenshots, URLs, contracts).

Modes
  • trademark The circuit's confusion test, plus dilution if the mark is famous and false advertising if there is a comparative claim.
  • copyright Ownership, registration, access and substantial similarity, fair use, and DMCA safe harbor.
  • patent Claim chart first pass with literal read, doctrine of equivalents flagged separately, and defenses to consider. A D-number routes to the design patent test instead.
  • trade secret Secrecy, reasonable measures and misappropriation, with preemption and reverse engineering flags.
  • provisional Runs on generic US defaults if the profile is not set up, every output tagged [PROVISIONAL].
Prompts that get more out of it
1Trademark, with the intake answered
/ip-legal:infringement-triage
Right: trademark. [client] is the senior party: [MARK], US Reg. No. [number], class [N].
Accused use: [accused mark] on [goods] at [URL], first seen [date].
Jurisdiction: [circuit]. No clock running that we know of.
[attach the screenshots and the watch service report]
Walk the confusion factors and show what cuts each way.

Answering the right, posture, jurisdiction, timing and evidence up front lets it skip the intake and go straight to the factors.

2Departing employee, trade secret
/ip-legal:infringement-triage
Right: trade secret. A former engineer at [client] joined [competitor] on [date] and may have taken [type of material].
[attach the confidentiality and invention assignment agreement]
Flag secrecy, reasonable measures and misappropriation separately, and list the facts we still need, such as access logs and what was returned at exit.

The agreement lets it check reasonable measures against paper, and the fact list tells you what to collect before anyone decides.

3Mixed facts, one right at a time
/ip-legal:infringement-triage
[attach photos of the accused product] [attach our design patent drawings, all figures]
This product copies [client]'s logo and product shape, and we hold design patent D[number]. Run trademark and design patent as separate triages, not blended.

Each right has its own test, and a D-number sends the patent side to the ordinary observer test instead of a claim chart.

05
Enforcement

Cease desist

/ip-legal:cease-desist

Draft a cease and desist calibrated to your enforcement posture, or triage one you received into an options memo.

Have ready To send: registration numbers, the specific conduct with dates and URLs, your relationship to the recipient, and what your client actually wants. To triage: the incoming letter.

Modes
  • --send Drafts the letter: runs counterparty diligence first, then the draft, then a pre-send gate naming your approver. It never sends.
  • --receive Triages a letter you received: rights validity, overbreadth, exposure, 6 options with a recommendation, and deadlines.
Prompts that get more out of it
1Draft with the facts in one go
/ip-legal:cease-desist --send
Right: [MARK], US Reg. No. [number], class [N].
Conduct: [company] sells [goods] bearing [accused mark] at [URL] since [date]. [attach screenshots]
Relationship: no prior dealings, not a customer or partner.
Demand: stop, and confirm in writing by a date.
If any of this is on a marketplace, include that platform's reporting path as a parallel track.

Answering the right, conduct, relationship and demand at once gets you to the diligence block and the approver gate faster, and a marketplace report often resolves in days.

2Triage a letter we received
/ip-legal:cease-desist --receive [attach the incoming letter]
Check whether the registrations they assert look live, flag anything overbroad in the demand, and set our internal decision deadline ahead of their stated one.

You get the options memo plus a deadline that leaves time to draft, review and approve a response.

3From triage to a response draft
We'll respond firmly. Hand this to --send as a response letter, and leave every citation as a placeholder until we verify it.

The response carries the triage context forward and runs the same pre-send gate again.

06
Enforcement

Takedown

/ip-legal:takedown

DMCA takedown: draft a notice, respond to one you received, or draft a counter-notice.

Have ready To send: the work, proof your client owns it or holds an exclusive license, the infringing URLs, a licensing check and your fair use read. To respond: the notice. To counter: when and why the content came down.

Modes
  • --send Drafts a §512(c)(3) notice after a fair use step under Lenz and a gate on the perjury statement.
  • --respond Triages a takedown against your content: license, fair use, notice defects, then comply, counter, engage or ignore.
  • --counter Drafts a §512(g)(3) counter-notice behind a gate on the consent to federal jurisdiction.
Prompts that get more out of it
1Send, with fair use already on the record
/ip-legal:takedown --send
Work: [title], owned by [client], copyright registration [number or none].
Infringing copies: [URLs] on [platform]. No license or prior consent covers this use.
My fair use read: purpose [your read], nature [your read], amount [your read], market effect [your read]. Conclusion: unlikely.
Tell me which intake path this platform expects.

It will not draft until fair use is considered under Lenz, so putting your read in the first message moves it straight to the 6 required elements.

2Our content came down
/ip-legal:takedown --respond [attach the notice the platform forwarded]
Check it against every §512(c)(3) element, tell me whether the platform gave us a chance to counter, and lay out the 4 options with your recommendation.

A defective notice changes your leverage, and you see the tradeoffs before anyone signs a sworn statement.

3Counter-notice, predicate stated
/ip-legal:takedown --counter
The content at [URL] came down on [date] after a DMCA notice from [sender], not a terms of service action. Our good faith basis for mistake: [licensed / fair use / sender does not own the work]. The decision to counter was made with counsel.

Stating the predicate up front matters because the counter-notice consents to federal jurisdiction in the claimant's district.

07
Patents

FTO triage

/ip-legal:fto-triage

Freedom-to-operate triage: a structured first look at potentially blocking patents for attorney review, not an FTO opinion.

Have ready The product's technical essence (a spec or diagram helps), where it is made, used, sold or imported, any patents already on your radar, and launch timing. Solve Intelligence connected if you want it to search.

Modes
  • provisional Runs on generic US defaults if the profile is not set up, every output tagged [PROVISIONAL].
Prompts that get more out of it
1Technical essence, not the pitch
/ip-legal:fto-triage
Product: [what it does and how it does it, in technical terms]. [attach the spec or architecture diagram]
Made in [country], sold in the US and [other].
Patents already on our radar: [numbers].
Launch is [N] months out, so design-around is on the table.
Chart each independent claim of the 2 to 5 closest patents.

Claims live at the level of the technical mechanism, and the timing tells it whether design-around is still realistic.

2Chart one patent we already know
/ip-legal:fto-triage [attach the patent]
Patent No. [number]. Chart each independent claim element by element against [product]. Literal read first, doctrine of equivalents as a separate flag, and list every term where claim construction changes the answer.

This is the core of the triage, and it leaves every construction call with patent counsel.

3Turn open questions into a request to counsel
Turn the open questions into a request to our patent counsel: in-force status, prosecution history on the disputed terms, any IPR outcomes, and license availability. Keep it inside privileged channels.

The triage never clears a product, and the skill warns that knowledge of specific patents can bear on willfulness.

08
Patents

Invention intake

/ip-legal:invention-intake

First-pass screen for an invention disclosure: novelty, obviousness, §101, bar dates, detectability and strategic value.

Have ready The invention disclosure form, or answers to its 7 intake questions, including every public disclosure with dates. Your profile has to include a patent practice.

Prompts that get more out of it
1Screen a disclosure form
/ip-legal:invention-intake [attach the invention disclosure form]
Only ask me for what the form is missing. Be specific on public disclosure: conference talks, preprints, public repos, betas and customer quotes, each with a date.

It pulls fields from a formal form and asks only for gaps, and the bar date screen is the one that is time-sensitive.

2Software or AI invention, filing abroad too
/ip-legal:invention-intake [paste the disclosure]
This is a machine learning invention and [client] files in the US and at the EPO. Route any close §101 question to a specialist, and weigh patent against trade secret if a competitor's use would be hard to detect.

The §101 screen is US-only, and the detectability screen is where a trade secret can beat a patent.

3Questions back to the inventor
Draft the follow-up questions to the inventor on the open items, in plain language.

An INVESTIGATE verdict turns into a pursue or decline decision faster when the inventor gets specific questions.

09
Open source

OSS review

/ip-legal:oss-review

Open source license compliance check: copyleft obligations, attribution and license compatibility against your OSS policy.

Have ready A manifest, lockfile or SBOM, a package name, or a repo path, plus the deployment model: SaaS, distributed binary, internal only, or embedded.

Modes
  • dependency list Classifies every entry in a manifest or SBOM and rolls up the obligations.
  • single library Classifies one package and walks its transitive dependencies where available.
  • outbound code Checks code you plan to open source: license compatibility, LICENSE and NOTICE files, and anything that should not go public.
Prompts that get more out of it
1Manifest plus deployment model
/ip-legal:oss-review [attach package.json or the SBOM]
Deployment: distributed binary. Read the actual license text for anything copyleft or non-OSI, and tell me how each copyleft package is linked.

Obligations change with the deployment model, and linking decides whether an LGPL package is critical or low risk.

2One library before adoption
/ip-legal:oss-review [package name]
We would run it inside a SaaS product. Check the license on the version we would pin, any recent license change, and its transitive dependencies.

Packages that changed license make the pinned version matter, and a permissive top level can hide copyleft underneath.

3Before releasing code
/ip-legal:oss-review [path to the repo]
We plan to release this under [license]. Run the outbound check: compatibility with every embedded dependency, LICENSE and NOTICE files, and anything in the history that should not go public.

It catches an incompatible outbound license and stray credentials before the code is public.

10
Setup

Cold start interview

/ip-legal:cold-start-interview

The setup interview that writes your practice profile. The only skill that runs on a fresh install.

Have ready 10 to 15 minutes for the full version, plus whatever you have of: portfolio export, brand guidelines, cease and desist template, enforcement playbook, OSS policy, a standard agreement with IP clauses.

Modes
  • --full Upgrades a quick start to the full interview.
  • --redo Re-runs the interview on a configured plugin and shows a diff before overwriting. Add a section name to redo one part.
  • --check-integrations Re-tests your connectors and updates the profile without re-interviewing.
Prompts that get more out of it
1Start the full setup
/ip-legal:cold-start-interview
I want the full setup, not the quick start. I'm a lawyer at a midsize IP firm. I'll share our portfolio export, cease and desist template and enforcement playbook when you ask for documents.

Choosing Full and a private-practice setting builds your real approval chain and turns on matter workspaces.

2Re-check connectors after adding one
/ip-legal:cold-start-interview --check-integrations
I just connected [CourtListener / Descrybe / Solve Intelligence].

It marks a connector connected only after a real tool call succeeds, and it updates the profile without a new interview.

3Redo one section
/ip-legal:cold-start-interview --redo enforcement posture
Our real trigger for sending a cease and desist has changed: [describe it]. Show me the diff before you overwrite.

Enforcement posture is the section the skill says gets adjusted most after first setup, and the diff shows exactly what moves.

11
Setup

Customize

/ip-legal:customize

Change one thing in your practice profile without re-running the whole interview.

Have ready A finished practice profile and the one change you want.

Prompts that get more out of it
1Add watched marks
/ip-legal:customize
Add [MARK 1] and [MARK 2] to the watched marks. Tell me what changes downstream before you write it.

It shows the current value and the knock-on effects, then confirms, so one change never means a new interview.

2Shift the enforcement posture
/ip-legal:customize
Change our enforcement posture from aggressive to measured, and flag anything else in the profile that now conflicts with it.

It flags tensions, such as an aggressive posture while every cease and desist goes to outside counsel.

3Add a ship-blocker license
/ip-legal:customize
Make [license name] a ship-blocker in our OSS review rules.

OSS review then fails any review that includes that license instead of only warning.

12
Workspace

Matter workspace

/ip-legal:matter-workspace

Create, list, switch and close matter workspaces so one client's context never leaks into another's.

Have ready Matter workspaces turned on (a private-practice setting at setup), a lowercase hyphenated slug, the client, the counterparty, the matter type and a confidentiality level.

Modes
  • new <slug> Runs a short intake and writes matter.md, history.md and notes.md.
  • list Table of matters with status, marking the active one.
  • switch <slug> Makes that matter active, so skills read its facts and write outputs to its folder.
  • close <slug> Archives the matter. It is never deleted.
  • none Detaches from any matter and works at practice level.
Prompts that get more out of it
1Open a matter with its overrides
/ip-legal:matter-workspace new [client-slug]-trademark-enforcement
Client: [client]. Counterparty: [name, or unknown infringer]. Matter type: trademark enforcement. Confidentiality: standard. Override for this matter only: measured tone, the counterparty is a channel partner.

A matter override beats the practice default in every skill, and this client's files stay walled off from your other matters.

2Switch before you start work
/ip-legal:matter-workspace list
Then switch to [matter-slug] and show me its summary.

With a matter active, every triage and draft lands in that matter's folder instead of prompting you each time.

3Close without losing the file
/ip-legal:matter-workspace close [matter-slug]

Closing archives the matter and logs the date, so it stays readable for conflicts and retention.

Built into the plugin

What it will not do on its own

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