Preamble

When in the course of running a modern intellectual property practice it becomes necessary for IP teams to dissolve the constraints that have prevented them from accessing their own data, and to assume, among the powers of the AI age, the separate and equal station to which the nature of their work and the demands of their clients entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of practitioners requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to that separation.

Self-Evident Truths

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

• That IP teams have the right to use their own matter data.
• That this data, the result of years of work, expense, and judgment, belongs to the organizations that created it, not to the systems that happen to store it.
• That artificial intelligence, properly grounded in real and accurate IP data, is among the most powerful tools ever placed in the hands of IP practitioners.
• And that whenever any system or service becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the IP team to seek another path, one that delivers value in weeks rather than quarters, and that respects the data and the people who depend on it.

The Grievances

The history of the present state of IP data access is a history of repeated frictions, all having in direct object the obstruction of useful AI inside IP teams. To prove this, let the facts be submitted to a candid profession:

• Our matter data has been held within systems that make practical export, query, and integration unreasonably difficult, even though the data is ours.
• Access to that data through APIs has been gated, throttled, or priced as a separate project, when it should be a feature.
• Our AI initiatives have been delayed not by the readiness of artificial intelligence, but by the unreadiness of the data layer beneath it.
• Skilled people (attorneys, paralegals, IP operations leads) have been asked to perform many tasks that an AI grounded in accurate data could do faster, while the data needed for that grounding remains locked one layer below.
• Innovation roadmaps have been written, approved, and funded, only to stall on a single line item: "awaiting IPMS data access."
• Generic AI tools, hungry for context, have been pointed at PDFs and free text and asked to produce worthy work. They have failed, predictably, because the data they were given was not structured, not current, and not verified.
• The promise that better data access was coming "in the next release" has, over many releases, become a refrain rather than a delivery.
• Our security and compliance teams have already approved AI tools we are permitted to use; yet the data those tools need to be useful has remained out of reach.
• We have been asked to choose between two unacceptable options: wait years for an IPMS vendor's roadmap, or fund a multi-quarter internal data project to extract what is already ours.
• And throughout, the work has continued. Office Actions still arrive, deadlines still fall, portfolios still grow, while the AI revolution has happened around us, with our data on the wrong side of the wall.

The Petition

In every stage of these obstructions, IP teams have petitioned for relief in the most humble terms. Tickets have been filed. Roadmap reviews have been attended. Professional services have been engaged. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated delay.

The Proclamation

We, therefore, the IP teams of the modern enterprise, corporate and firm, large and small, in every jurisdiction in which inventions are filed and brands are registered, appealing to the good judgment of our colleagues and the urgency of our clients, do solemnly publish and declare:

• That our matter data is, and of right ought to be, accessible to the AI tools of our choosing.
• That we are absolved from waiting upon any vendor's permission to use the data we already own.
• That we may layer modern AI workflows onto our existing systems without ripping them out, without rebuilding them, and without delay.
• And that we shall measure our path forward in weeks of value delivered, not in quarters of integration deferred.

For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on our goodwill, on data engines built deliberately and honestly, and on the IP attorneys and IP operations professionals who have always made this profession work, we mutually demand IP Data Independence.