/portfolio

name: portfolio
description: >
  Track the IP portfolio — registrations, renewals, maintenance fees, and use
  declarations. Use when checking what's renewing, adding or updating an
  asset, recording a maintenance filing, or auditing the register for gaps,
  lapses, and use-in-commerce questions. Receives handoffs from prosecution
  and clearance work.
argument-hint: "[--report [--days N] | --add | --update | --audit]"

/portfolio

Surfaces what's renewing, adds assets, records filings, and audits the register.

Instructions

1. **Follow the workflow below** and read `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/ip-legal/portfolio.yaml`.

2. **Default (no args):** equivalent to `--report` — show deadlines in the next 90 days grouped by urgency (🔴 lapsed/grace, ⏰ due within window, 🟡 upcoming, 🌐 agent-managed, ❓ unknown).

3. **`--report [--days N]`:** Mode 2. Change the window with `--days` (30 / 60 / 90 / 180 typical). Always prepend the work-product header per CLAUDE.md → Outputs. Always close with the verification caveat.

4. **`--add`:** Mode 3. Walk through a new asset interactively — type, jurisdiction, number, dates, owner, business owner. Capture a custom rule if the jurisdiction isn't built in.

5. **`--update`:** Mode 4. Record that a maintenance filing or fee payment was made, sync with the IP management system, or change an asset's status. Enforce the consequential-action gate before setting any deadline to `filed`.

6. **`--audit`:** Mode 5. Broader health check — deadline hygiene, registration gaps, use-in-commerce questions on §8-approaching marks, owner inconsistencies, expiration horizon, unwatched marks.

7. **If the register is empty and an IP management system is connected:** Offer Mode 1 — pull the portfolio from the system of record and initialise the register.

8. **Guardrail reminder:** Computed deadlines are reference only. Every output closes with a line directing verification against the USPTO TSDR, WIPO, or relevant registry before filing or paying. A docketed-but-wrong deadline creates false confidence; do not let the user treat this as the system of record unless the IP management system is sync-integrated.

Examples

/ip-legal:portfolio

/ip-legal:portfolio --report --days 180

/ip-legal:portfolio --add

/ip-legal:portfolio --update

/ip-legal:portfolio --audit

---

Works better connected

This skill tracks deadlines from what you tell it. It works much better connected to:

• **An IP management system (IPMS) via MCP** — Anaqua, Clarivate IPfolio,

AppColl, Patrix, Alt Legal, FoundationIP. A connected IPMS gives you the full docket, maintenance fee schedules, and incoming correspondence in one place, instead of the register being whatever the lawyer remembers to paste. Ask your IPMS vendor if they have an MCP connector, or see `CONNECTORS.md` at the repo root for how to get one added.

• **USPTO directly via customer number** — pulls status, deadlines, and

correspondence for your whole portfolio rather than one application at a time. Not currently available as an MCP; on the wish list in `CONNECTORS.md`.

Without either, paste your docket or upload a spreadsheet and I'll track from there.

Purpose

A trademark registration that isn't renewed on time can be cancelled. A patent without its maintenance fee paid lapses. A domain that expires can be sniped within the hour. All of this is avoidable, and all of it depends on one thing: the right deadline is on someone's calendar, tied to the right registration number, in the right jurisdiction.

This skill maintains that calendar.

Important: deadline reference caveat

> The deadline rules this skill applies reflect publicly available requirements > as of the skill's build date. IP office requirements, grace periods, fee > structures, and maintenance schedules change. **Always confirm computed > deadlines against the USPTO TSDR / Patent Center, WIPO Madrid Monitor / > Patentscope, EUIPO eSearch, UKIPO online records, or the relevant national > registry before acting.** If you use Anaqua, CPA Global, Clarivate, Alt Legal, > or another IP management system, their docket is authoritative for your > assets — use this tracker to organize and surface their data, not to replace > it. > > A docketed-but-wrong deadline is worse than an undocketed one: it creates > false confidence. "No deadline soon" outputs especially deserve a second > look before you rely on them.

Jurisdiction and type assumptions

Maintenance mechanics vary by jurisdiction and asset type:

• **US trademarks:** §8 Declaration of Use between 5th and 6th anniversary of

registration (or §71 for Madrid designations), then combined §8/§9 renewal at 10 years and every 10 years thereafter. §15 Incontestability available after 5 years of continuous use. 6-month grace period with surcharge for §8 and §9; no grace for the underlying use itself.

• **Madrid International trademarks:** 10-year registration term renewable at

WIPO; individual designated countries may have local use or declaration requirements (e.g., US §71).

• **EUIPO trademarks:** 10-year renewal; 6-month grace with surcharge.
• **US utility patents:** Maintenance fees due at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years

from grant. 6-month grace window with surcharge; after that, potential revival by petition if lapse was unintentional.

• **US design patents:** No maintenance fees — 15-year term from grant for

applications filed on or after May 13, 2015 (14 years if earlier). No action required mid-term.

• **EPO / national patents:** Annuities typically due annually from filing or

from national phase entry. National rules vary — confirm per jurisdiction.

• **US copyright:** No maintenance for works created 1978 or later.

Pre-1978 works may have had renewal obligations; flag for attorney review if the asset pre-dates 1964 (rarely in scope for modern portfo