Patent applications are made up of several formal “parts.” Some of these are required in all filings, while others are optional or context-specific (e.g., used in non-provisionals or joint research filings).

Patentext gives you a flexible structure to manage these parts from the Outline Panel, including tools to generate content and adjust what’s included in your final draft.

This guide explains each part’s role, when it's required, and how to edit or remove it as needed.

In this page

Navigating the Outline panel

The Outline Panel appears on the left side of the editor. It shows the current structure of your application and provides:

• A list of default parts (automatically added when you generate a new draft)
• Tools to:
  • Navigate between parts
  • Add new parts from the graph
  • Add custom parts
  • Remove optional parts

Default application parts

These parts appear by default in every new draft. Some are required in all non-provisional filings; others are optional but useful for context and clarity.

You can remove any optional part by hovering over the section in the Outline Panel and selecting thehide icon that appears on the right side of the application part. ****.

Background (optional)

The background helps set the stage for the invention. This part may include prior art or known problems in the field, but should not introduce any new content about the invention itself.

To generate this part:

• Navigate to Background via the Outline Panel
• Click Generate at the top of the Document Panel to draft this part (you can access the generate button again if you delete all the paragraphs in the Background part)

Summary (optional)

The summary offers a high-level overview of the invention and how it addresses the problems raised in the Background section.

To generate the summary: