New · IP management software
OttoFlow™ The docket that runs itself.
OttoFlow™ is AI-native IP management software for docketing, prosecution, and patent portfolio management, built for law firms and corporate IP departments by the team behind Foundation IP.
1,853
Docketing procedures in the rule library
205
Jurisdictions seeded, across 63 rule sets
5M+
Fully automated docketing transactions
300+
Foreign agents connected through Honu™
The challenge
A large docket shouldn’t depend on heroics.
Every office action in every jurisdiction needs to be docketed the day it lands. Every deadline has to trace back to a document and a rule. Every client report is expected before anyone asks. At volume, holding that standard by hand means re-keyed dates, long nights, and a few people who know how it all works.
One date that never gets entered can quietly sit until it becomes unfixable. And the corporate IP departments behind the largest portfolios now expect more: fewer human touches per office action, and docket data their own AI can reach.
What OttoFlow is
A prosecution engine, not another database with features bolted on.
OttoFlow™, Badlands Edition, is event-driven from the ground up. Incoming PTO correspondence, examiner actions, agent reports, and inbound email are matched to matters, run through a versioned rule library, and turned into docket obligations that carry their own provenance — without anyone re-keying a date.
Around that engine is a complete IP management system. Anything you can do in the interface, you can do through the Agent API and CloudEvents webhooks — or by asking OttoFlow from Claude, ChatGPT, or Microsoft Copilot through the built-in MCP controller.
How a document becomes a docket entry
Matched to the right matter by application number and document code
Run through the rule library, with that client’s conventions applied
Due dates computed from country law and holiday calendars, provenance attached
Checked by rules and AI, confirmed by people — by exception
Pushed to workflows, alerts, client reports, portals, and webhooks
How to read the platform
What evaluators ask about first.
Law firms serving large corporate clients — and the corporate IP departments themselves — tend to start with the same questions. Here’s where each one is answered.
Full AI enablement
A built-in MCP controller and open APIs connect OttoFlow to Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot. Inside: a prosecution console plus AI-enabled NOA processing, shell creation, and error surveillance.
AI & automation →A docketing engine that computes
1,853 procedures, 63 jurisdictional rule sets, holiday calendars, and three-tier client overrides. Every date carries its source document, rule, and verifier.
The docketing engine →A docket run by a team, not a hero
Role-scoped Firm Docket, keyboard triage, bulk actions with undo, personal queues, digests, and a Work Delegation page that reassigns work in one step.
Running a large docket →Wired into the patent offices
USPTO data through Otto HUB™ and Patent Center, plus Global Dossier, EPO OPS, WIPO, JPO, KIPO, and CNIPA — and 300+ foreign associates through Honu™.
Otto HUB™ →IDS that reads the forms for you
PTO-892, 1449, and SB/08 extraction, cross-family propagation, cross-cite pools, and SB/08 generation — also licensed on its own as IDS Manager.
IDS Manager →Reporting that runs itself
Scheduled data reports, narrative client reports, a full merge-document library, portfolio analytics with AI categorization, and workload analytics.
See the platform →Open APIs as the backbone
A scoped, idempotent, Swagger-documented Agent API across the whole record, plus CloudEvents webhooks and DMS push — built for your automation initiatives.
Open APIs →Security answered with mechanisms
Tenant isolation enforced in the database, MFA and SSO, and an append-only audit stream. Security documentation is available under NDA.
Security →Why OttoFlow
OttoFlow is built to take hours out, not to bill for them.
Legacy vendors grew by selling docketing hours, often from offshore service teams. OttoFlow is licensed as software, so every step that runs itself is the product working.
Hours-based model
OttoFlow™
Where docketing happens
Hours-based model
A service team keys dates from correspondence
OttoFlow™
A rule engine computes obligations from the office’s own documents; people verify by exception
Provenance
Hours-based model
A user name and a timestamp
OttoFlow™
Source document, rule, formula, base date, and verifier — on every date
Client reporting
Hours-based model
Prepared by staff, on request
OttoFlow™
Generated on schedule from the record, in the client’s format
AI posture
Hours-based model
A chat feature inside the vendor’s product
OttoFlow™
Part of your AI infrastructure — MCP controller and open APIs
The platform
One IP management system. Everything a large docket needs.
It covers fifteen matter types and a 17-tab patent record, with every module working from the same data.
Matter management
Fifteen matter types, about 70 registry fields plus unlimited custom fields, and a Matter Search built for 20,000-matter portfolios — including natural-language queries.
Patent office connections
Bibliographic data, file wrappers, continuity, citations, and examiner analytics pulled from the source into one schema. Bulk USPTO refresh runs in the background.
IDS & citations
A master reference list, AI extraction from PTO-892, 1449, and SB/08, cross-family propagation, and SB/08 generation — with IDS deadlines from the docketing engine.
Documents & email
A document store with OCR, a full merge-document library, and inbound email matched by application number straight into the correspondence queue.
Workflows & alerts
Versioned workflow templates with stages, tasks, checklists, and budgets. Six alert types reach the right people by role, through email, in-app, or digest.
Reporting & analytics
Scheduled data reports, narrative client reports, workflow and workload analytics, and a portfolio analyzer that classifies thousands of patents into named ontologies.
Client portal & Honu™
A client portal with its own roles, and a Foreign Filing Hub that turns a filing decision into instructed, tracked work with 300+ agents through Honu™.
Open APIs
Anything the interface can do, an API key can do: scoped keys, idempotent writes, Swagger/OpenAPI documentation, and CloudEvents for what happens inside.
Corporate programs
Invention disclosures, inventor remuneration — including the German statutory formula — and billing and time with LEDES and UTBMS, built in rather than bolted on.
Security & administration
Answer the security questionnaire with mechanisms, not policies.
A corporate client’s security questionnaire is usually the second document they send. OttoFlow answers it with isolation in the database, an append-only audit, and identity controls built in.
Tenant isolation enforced by PostgreSQL row-level security, not application code
TOTP multi-factor authentication and SAML 2.0 / OIDC single sign-on
An append-only security audit stream and 18 permissions across eight domains
Encryption in transit and at rest; API keys hashed and AI credentials encrypted separately
Hosted on Amazon Web Services, with region pinning and a dedicated account boundary available
44 admin sections to onboard a new corporate client — fields, conventions, reports, portal — without a vendor ticket
Ask for SOC 2 auditing, incident-response, and business-continuity documentation under NDA.
Licensing
License OttoFlow two ways.
Both are licensed to law firms and directly to corporate IP departments.
OttoFlow™
The entire platform: docketing engine, prosecution console, matter management, IDS, reporting, portals, open APIs, and the corporate-program modules.
Explore the docketing engine →OttoFlow™ IDS Manager
Matters, references, PTO data, documents, and related matters only — the fastest way to bring citation management and SB/08 generation into a firm that keeps its docket elsewhere.
Explore IDS Manager →Built by IP attorneys
OttoFlow comes from the people who built Foundation IP.
Twenty-five years ago, the founders of Black Hills AI built Foundation IP — the first web-based IP management system, and today the application with the largest law-firm customer base in the field. They are patent practitioners, and the engineers who built the tools they practiced with.
OttoFlow is the platform they would have built at the start, had the technology existed. Every rule in the library was written by someone who has docketed it.
25
Full-time software developers
20+
Docket automation specialists
10+
DevOps specialists
Evaluate OttoFlow
Start with your own mail.
Send us a month of correspondence for one corporate client. We’ll show you the docket it produces — with every date’s provenance.
1
Schedule a demo
A short first conversation about how your docket runs, what your clients require, and where you want to automate.
2
Send a month of mail
Pick one corporate client. We process a month of their correspondence on a pilot tenant set up with their fields and conventions.
3
Check every date
Walk through the docket it produces — each date traced to its document, rule, and formula — then decide on a parallel pilot.
Questions
What firms ask before they switch.
Is OttoFlow an IP management system?
Yes. OttoFlow is IP management software — one system of record for matters, docketing, prosecution, IDS, documents, workflows, reporting, client portal, billing, and corporate programs. Firms that aren’t ready to move their docket can start with OttoFlow IDS Manager, which runs alongside the system they already use.
Do we have to move everything at once?
No. Import rules read your transfer package and suggest field mappings with AI, with audit history and rollback. Host-system synchronization can keep OttoFlow current with a legacy platform during a phased migration, and most evaluations start with a pilot tenant running in parallel.
Does AI make docketing decisions?
Deadlines come from a versioned, tested rule library, so the same document produces the same date every time. AI reads incoming documents, extracts office-action tags, and checks the results; anything it sources is labeled in a dedicated verification queue, and people confirm by exception.
Can our own AI reach the docket?
Yes. The MCP controller connects OttoFlow to Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot. Every AI write is pre-validated against the matter, the obligation, the rule, and the user’s privileges before it lands — then audited as AI-entered under that user’s name.
Which AI provider does it use?
Yours. Connect your own API keys; OttoFlow isn’t tied to one model vendor. Each of its eleven AI features is enabled per tenant, metered, and governed by rate limits and per-user spend limits, with an AI Usage page showing who spent what on which feature.
Where is our data hosted?
On Amazon Web Services, with region pinning and a dedicated account boundary available for firms whose corporate clients require one. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and tenant isolation is enforced in the database itself.
Explore OttoFlow™
Keep exploring OttoFlow.
Why OttoFlow
Why software, not billable hours, takes the touches out of prosecution.
Read why OttoFlow →The docketing engine
A rule engine that computes every deadline, with provenance on every date.
See the docketing engine →AI & automation
The prosecution console, the MCP controller, and AI tools built on the docket.
See AI & automation →IDS Manager
Prior-art capture, deduplication, and SB/08 generation, in OttoFlow or on its own.
See IDS Manager →See your docket run itself.
Bring a month of correspondence for one client. We’ll show you the docket OttoFlow produces — and where every date came from.