Pruning in ArcPrime helps you identify patents that may no longer justify their next maintenance fee. Every family gets a single Keep Score, backed by claim scope overlap, detectability, product evidence, and years left. You review the candidates, record decisions country by country, and track the savings.
Key Capabilities
Keep Score — One 0–100 number per family, weighted by factors you configure. Sort the whole list by it to surface the weakest cases first.
Claim scope overlap — The Overlap column and the Closest Relative line show how much of a case's scope a sibling already covers.
Product evidence — The Product Mappings column carries screening project matches, Quick Research results, and deep research chart counts. Run either research directly from the row.
Decision tracking — The Make a Decision page records a renew or do-not-renew choice for each country, with a note. Decisions and history stay available for audit.
Cost impact — Summary cards show fees saved, fees spent, and fees still undecided, and they honor your active filters.
High-touch outlier detection — Pending cases with unusually many office actions are flagged on their own tab.
Counsel messaging, export, and overpayment checks — Email counsel from a row, download the list as CSV, and check for maintenance fee overpayments.
How It Works
Open Patents > Intelligence > Pruning. The Renewal Candidates tab lists families with fees due in the current cycle, ordered by due date. Each row shows the Keep Score, overlap, detectability, expiration, product mappings, and next cost.
Click Decide on a row to open the Make a Decision page, or Message to email counsel. Use the other tabs to review Decisions, History (completed cycles), and High Touch Outliers.
Cadence, review lead time, and Keep Score weights live under Settings > Workflows & Automation > Pruning. If your annuities provider is configured, do-not-renew decisions also stop payment through the monthly provider file.
Common Use Cases
Use Case | How ArcPrime Helps |
Renewal cost reduction | Sort by Keep Score to find low-value families with high next fees |
Family consolidation | Use Overlap to spot cases whose scope a sibling already covers |
Evidence-based keep calls | Run Quick Research or deep research before deciding on a borderline family |
Audit compliance | Keep a per-country decision log with notes and prior-cycle history |
Getting Started
Candidates populate automatically once your portfolio is imported and a cycle starts. To read the columns, see pruning candidates and scores. To understand the single number behind each row, see the Keep Score. Configure cycles in pruning settings or the shared pruning cadence guide.
Related Articles
Pruning Candidates and Scores — Columns, filters, and sorting on the candidates list
Understanding the Keep Score — What the score blends and how to reweight it
How to Review and Decide on Renewals — Record decisions on the Make a Decision page
Running Effective Pruning Cycles — Practices for a repeatable review