| name | concept-interviewing |
| description | Conducts an interview to define the product concept and identify competitors.
Triggered when:
- The user wants to start a patent investigation for a new product, idea, or concept
(e.g., "start a patent search for a new product", "patent investigation for a new idea")
- The user explicitly requests:
* "conduct concept interview"
* "define product concept"
* "define search requirements"
|
Concept Interview
Purpose
Define the product concept and identify competitors. This establishes the
foundation for patent targeting.
Prerequisites
No specific prerequisites required.
Skill Orchestration
Do NOT delegate to subagents (Agent tool) — invoke Skills directly from this session.
Process
Step 1: Check Existing Specification
Use the Glob tool to check if specification.md exists:
- If exists:
- Read the existing specification
- Check if "Verified Assignee Names" table contains proper assignee name variations:
- If assignee names are listed with variations: Verification already complete — skip to confirmation
- If assignee names are missing or incomplete: Perform assignee verification (Step 3)
- If NOT exists: Proceed to Step 2
Step 2: Information Gathering
Extract the following information from the user's input:
Required Information:
- Product Concept: Detailed description of what they want to realize
- Competitors: List of key competitor companies (Mandatory)
- Target Country: Where the product will be released (e.g., US, JP)
- Target Release Date: Approximate date
- Cutoff Date: Calculate
Target Release Date - 20 years. Patents filed before this date are likely expired
Extraction Logic:
- If the user provides a country (e.g., "in the US", "US market"), extract and use that
- If the user provides a release date (e.g., "2025", "June 2025"), extract and use that
- Extract competitors from mentions of company names
If any required information is missing:
- Ask the user to provide the missing information
- Do not make assumptions or use default values
[!NOTE]
In automated test environments, ensure all required information is provided in
the initial request to avoid interactive prompts.
Step 3: Assignee Identification
For each competitor, verify the correct "Assignee Name" used in patent databases.
-
Verify: Invoke Skills in parallel for efficiency:
Skill: skill="google-patent-cli:patent-assignee-check" args="<Company Name> --country <Target Country>"
- Omit the limit parameter to get all assignee variations (default: 100)
- CRITICAL: Check skill response:
- Verify the response does NOT contain errors
- If skill fails: Refer to
references/troubleshooting.md for error handling
- Do NOT proceed with fabricated or assumed assignee names
-
Confirm: Display the top assignee variations found and ask the user if they represent the intended competitor.
-
Refine: If incorrect or no hits, try variations (e.g., "Google LLC" instead of "Google").
-
Finalize:
- Fill the Verified Assignee Names (Canonicalized) table in
specification.md
- Record all identified official Assignee Names, including all name variations
- Record the verification status and any notes (e.g., holding company, subsidiary)
Step 4: Transition to Targeting
- Deliverable:
specification.md created with verified assignee names
- Next skill:
/patent-kit:targeting
Output Management
- Output File:
specification.md
- Template: Use
assets/templates/specification-template.md
- Format: Markdown (not JSON)
- Note: This file is referenced by all subsequent skills (targeting, screening, evaluating, claim-analyzing)
State Management
Initial State
- No
specification.md (proceed with interview)
- OR
specification.md exists (skip to verification/confirmation)
Final State
specification.md created with:
- Product concept clearly defined
- Target country and release date specified
- All competitors' assignee names verified
- Complete information saved
Quality Gates
