FIG. 1 — Docket-to-billing sync engine
DocketBridge is a local sync engine for IP firms. It reads the docket reports AppColl already exports and turns completed tasks into Clio time entries — through an idempotency gate that makes duplicate billing structurally impossible — and mirrors docket deadlines onto every attorney's calendar. One machine inside your firm; it never even logs into AppColl.
FIG. 1 — A docket entry (·) traverses the engine; duplicates are diverted at the gate (16) and recorded at (20).
Field of the invention
AppColl is your system of record. Clio is where the work gets billed; the calendar is where deadlines have to land. DocketBridge is the local engine that carries data across that gap — one way, exactly once — so no one re-keys it by hand. It works from a report AppColl already knows how to export, so there's no API to wait on and no plugin to install.
AppCollClio time entries
Completed docket tasks become billable Clio entries automatically. An idempotency gate makes duplicate billing structurally impossible, and every entry lands in a bar-grade audit trail.
AppCollClio / Google Calendar
Docket deadlines mirror into Clio Calendar or Google Calendar, reaching every attorney's phone on the next sync — no app to install, nothing to re-key.
Same engine, same machine, same read-only discipline toward your docket of record.
FIG. 2 — Prior art
AppColl knows what happened on every matter. Clio knows what to bill. Between them, the prior art: a person re-keying docket activity into time entries — hours every week, and every retype a chance to bill twice or not at all.
Double-billed entries erode client trust and invite fee disputes. Missed entries are silent revenue leaks. A deadline that never reaches an attorney's calendar is worse than either. All three trace to the same deficiency: a handoff that software should own.
FIG. 2 — The deficiency in the art: hours of re-keying, two failure modes.
FIGS. 3–5 — What is claimed
We claim:
A sync engine wherein every entry carries an idempotency key, such that any retry — network blip, crash, or a re-exported, overlapping report — posts exactly once. Never twice.
The engine of claim 1, running on a machine inside your firm. It reads AppColl's own exported reports and posts to Clio — it never logs into AppColl, and no third-party cloud ever holds client information.
The engine of claim 1, wherein every entry is logged with timestamps and its docket source — so when a client questions an invoice, the answer is one search away.
Fee schedule
One price covers your whole firm — every attorney, every paralegal, every matter.
* No maintenance fees. No per-claim surcharges. The PTO should take notes.
Early-stage honesty: DocketBridge is working software in founder-led rollout. First firms get hands-on onboarding directly from the person who wrote the code — and outsized influence on what gets built next.
Office action
The questions every firm asks before the first call. Answered in advance.
FIG. 6 — Examiner interview · 15 min
I'm Corey. I build systems that move data between platforms that were never designed to talk to each other — and right now I'm talking to IP firms about how billing and deadlines actually move out of AppColl day to day.
If you run docketing or billing at an IP boutique, I want to hear how the handoff works at your firm — what's manual, what breaks, what you've already tried. Patent prosecution has examiner interviews; consider this one in reverse. You talk. I take the notes.
