The Nishaan app for firms

The Nishaan app is for both the people at a firm and the firm's clients. It opens with a choice: I work at an IP firm or I'm a client of a firm.

Sign in with your Nishaan email and password, or with Continue with Google. Google opens in a sheet, you pick your account, and you are back in the app. It works for firm owners and team members whether or not they connected Google before. If no firm uses your Google address yet, the same sheet asks for your firm's name and starts your free trial. Clients still need an invitation from their firm.

• Today: the latest journal and the days left to oppose, what your clients sent and what is due next.
• Clients: the clients you handle (or all of them), with their marks, messages, documents and approvals.
• Filings: every new trademark your clients asked you to file, and the ones you started, grouped as new requests, being prepared and filed. The number on the tab is the requests nobody has started yet.
• Deadlines: your side's and the other side's, grouped by when they fall.
• Account.

Drafting, reports and settings stay on the web, where there is room for them.

Getting started

A new firm sees a short Getting started card on Today with two steps: add your first client, then invite them. Tap a step to go straight there. Each step ticks itself off when it is done, and the card goes away once both are. Team members are added in the web app, under Settings.

Adding a client

A client is the owner named on your marks. To add one, go to Clients and tap Add client. Type the client's application numbers, one or several, separated by commas or new lines. Nishaan finds each mark in the trademark records, adds it to your portfolio and makes the owner a client. You then land on that client, ready to invite them.

Someone filing their first trademark with you has no marks yet. Under New client, no mark yet, type their name as it will appear on the application, and their email or WhatsApp number if you have them. Tap Add new client and you land on the client, ready to invite them and start their filing.

A mark that has not been published in a journal yet cannot be found this way. Add it with its name and class in the web app. To bring in every mark filed under your agent code in one go, use Portfolio, Sync in the web app.

Inviting a client

Open the client. Until someone from the client has signed in, you see Invite to the client portal. The email is filled in when the client already has one on file. Add their name if you like and tap Send invite.

The client gets an email with a link to set up their account; the link works for 7 days. Emails sometimes land in spam, so after sending you can tap Share on WhatsApp to send the same link from your own WhatsApp, or Share another way for SMS or anything else. If the client has not opened the invite, tap Invite again for a fresh link.

New filings

On a client, New filings lists the trademarks the client asked you to file, and the ones you started for them. Tap Start a filing to prepare one yourself. Each filing shows the mark, the logo if one was sent, what it is for, and the documents you need for that kind of applicant.

Move a filing along as you work: Start preparing tells the client you are on it and asks for the documents, and Mark as filed takes the application number IP India gave you (several, separated by commas, for several classes). The mark then joins your portfolio under that client and is tracked like every other mark. Cancel stops a filing. The client is told at each step.

New requests from clients also appear on Today until you start on them.

To start a filing from anywhere, open the Filings tab and tap Start a filing. Pick the client, or choose New client, no mark yet for someone filing their first trademark: add their name and you go straight to the filing form.

This week's possible conflicts

On Today, the card under the greeting says how many possible conflicts the latest Trade Marks Journal has for your clients' marks. Tap it to see them by client: the journal mark, its owner and class, which of your client's marks it is close to, and why (shared words, sound or logo). It is the same check as Journal watch on the web, and the last date to oppose is at the top.

For each one:

• Ask client sends your recommendation to the client's portal and app. They approve or decline opposing it, and the match then shows their answer.
• WhatsApp opens WhatsApp with the conflict and the last date to oppose written out, plus a link to the client's portal, so you can send it from your own number.
• Not a conflict takes it off the list for this journal. Choose Include not a conflict at the top to see those again and bring one back with Show again.

Checking a name

Tap the search button at the top of Today to check a name before a client files. Type the name and, if you know it, the class. You see marks already on the register with the same name, then marks with similar names, each with its owner and status. These are possible conflicts to look at, not a clearance: logos, marks that sound alike and applications not yet in the records can still matter.

Sharing on WhatsApp

On a client, each mark has Share this update on WhatsApp: its status and next step, with a link to the client's portal. Each document you shared has Tell the client on WhatsApp. Files are never sent on WhatsApp; the client opens them in their portal.

Invoices

On a client, Invoices lists what you billed them. Tap New invoice for a quick one-line invoice, and Mark paid when the money arrives. Add your UPI ID first in the web app, Settings, Client payments.

For your clients

Your clients use the same app. What they see is in The Nishaan app for clients.

Notifications

Allow notifications when the app asks. You are told about:

• each new journal, with how many possible conflicts it has for your clients;
• your side's deadlines a week before and the day before;
• messages, documents, answers and new filing requests from your clients.

Tap a notification to open the right screen; anything a client did opens that client's page. Notifications need the version of the app from the Play Store or App Store; until then, the same news arrives by email.

Unlock with fingerprint or face

Under Account, turn on Unlock with fingerprint or face. The app then asks for it when it opens and after five minutes away, and falls back to your phone's PIN. You stay signed in.