The Prosecution view helps you understand how the target patent became the patent you are looking at today. For US patents, &AI brings the USPTO file wrapper into one review surface. For EP patents with prosecution-history support, it shows EPO Register entries and any Global Dossier documents that &AI can retrieve for the application. Instead of downloading and organizing the record manually, you can inspect the document sequence, compare available claim changes, and understand the prosecution story in one place.
This workflow is available on CORE plans, and processing prosecution documents costs tokens to run.
Use this workflow when you need to:
review office actions, amendments, and applicant responses
understand how the claims changed over time
collect support for claim-scope, estoppel, or validity analysis
process important prosecution documents for later drafting, charting, or explanation
Open the Prosecution view
From the target patent, choose Prosecution in the patent-analysis navigation. For USPTO histories, the page opens on Claims by default and includes Claims, Documents, and Summary tabs. For EP register histories, an Entries tab also appears between Documents and Summary.
Use Claims when you want claim-version comparisons first. Switch to Documents when you need the raw file-history table. If the history has not been fetched or processed yet, page-level controls can handle that initial retrieval or reprocessing step.
Use EP register history when it is available
For EP patents, the Prosecution view can include an Entries tab for the EPO Register timeline and a Documents tab for any Global Dossier files that were retrieved for the application.
Use Entries when you want the official EPO event history. Use Documents when you need to open, process, and review the underlying materials that were pulled from Global Dossier. Claim redlines and register-backed summary timelines are not available for EPO Register history yet, so the EP workflow is primarily a register-and-documents review surface today.
Use the Documents tab to review the file history
The Documents tab is the best starting point when you need to inspect the actual prosecution record. In the current implementation, the list gives you:
a search field for document code, description, or title
a Filters menu for direction and processing status
sortable columns for title, code, direction, and official date
row click behavior that opens the selected document in the viewer
bulk selection for documents that still need processing
This lets you narrow the record quickly before you spend time on the documents that matter most.
The page can also explain that some non-patent-literature items do not appear in the list because of how the USPTO designates that material. That is useful context if you expect to see every attachment from the file history and notice that some material is absent.
Process the documents that matter
When the prosecution record contains documents that are still unprocessed, you can select them from the Documents tab and run the bulk Process action. A practical pattern is:
Search or filter down to the office actions, claim amendments, and remarks you care about.
Select the documents that still need processing.
Start processing from the header action.
Wait for the processing state to update before moving into claims or summary review.
This is the step that makes prosecution materials more useful elsewhere in the project. It is also the point where token usage is most likely to matter.
Use the Claims tab to understand what changed
The Claims tab is where prosecution history becomes substantially easier to interpret. According to the mapped product docs, this area supports:
selecting claim versions for comparison
switching between diff and plain-text views
changing the claim-layout style
tracing additions, deletions, and modifications across versions
exporting claim history when you need an external working copy
Use the Claims tab when the key question is not just what documents exist, but what the applicant actually changed in response to examination.
Use the Summary tab to understand the story faster
The Summary tab is the fastest way to get oriented when you do not want to read the full record line by line first. It provides an AI-generated summary timeline, which makes it useful for:
understanding the sequence of rejections and responses
spotting major prosecution turns quickly
deciding which underlying documents deserve a closer read
The summary view is especially helpful when you are joining an ongoing matter and need a fast orientation pass before deeper legal analysis.
What to pay attention to
As you review prosecution history, focus on the moments that usually change substantive analysis:
first significant rejections
claim amendments that narrow or reframe limitations
remarks that explain why the applicant says the claims are allowable
allowance-stage documents that confirm the path to issuance
Those are often the documents you will want processed and ready before moving into claim construction, invalidity work, or drafting.
Common review pattern
A reliable way to work through prosecution history is:
Start in Documents to find the documents that define the prosecution story.
Process the documents that are still unavailable for richer analysis.
Move to Claims to compare versions and isolate meaningful changes.
Use Summary to confirm you have the story straight before moving on.
This sequence helps you avoid getting lost in a long file wrapper while still staying grounded in the original record.
After prosecution review
From here, return to claims or claim construction with better context for how the language evolved, or continue into charting and drafting with the key prosecution documents already processed.