FIG. 1 — Docket-to-billing sync engine
DocketBridge is a local sync engine that pulls completed tasks from AppColl and posts time entries to Clio — through an idempotency gate that makes duplicate billing structurally impossible, with an audit trail written for the way law firms get questioned.
FIG. 1 — A docket entry (·) traverses the engine; duplicates are diverted at the gate (16) and recorded at (20).
FIG. 2 — Prior art
The manual handoff is 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. Both 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
Built like infrastructure,
because billing is infrastructure.
We claim:
No duplicate billing
A sync engine wherein every entry carries an idempotency key, such that any retry — network blip, crash, restart — posts exactly once. Never twice.
Local-only deployment
The engine of claim 1, running on a machine inside your firm. Docket data flows AppColl → your office → Clio. No third-party cloud ever holds client information.
Bar-grade audit trail
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
Flat per firm. No per-seat math.
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
Anticipated rejections & responses.
The questions every firm asks before the first call. Answered in advance.
FIG. 6 — Examiner interview · 15 min
Talk to the founder.
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 the AppColl-to-Clio workflow actually runs 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.
