A Founder’s Guide to Patent Drawings: What to Include, How to Create Them Fast, and What to Focus On

When you’re building a startup, patent drawings might seem like a formality. But clear, compliant figures often make the difference between a smooth patent grant and an examiner rejection. They’re not just visual aids—they’re part of the disclosure itself, showing how your invention works.

Here’s a practical guide for innovators using Idea Clerk to prepare invention disclosures and patent applications—covering what to include, how to make drawings quickly (even with ChatGPT), and what to focus on for your specific invention.

What Patent Figures Should Include

Each drawing should depict an embodiment of your invention—an example that illustrates how it can be built or used.
For most startups, this means showing:

• System diagrams — key components of your platform, product, or process (e.g., client device, server, database, model, API).

• Method or flow diagrams — major operational steps or interactions between components.

• Hardware embodiments — for physical devices, show front, side, and perspective views.

• Interfaces or screens — for software, include functional screens or mockups that illustrate the core interaction or logic.

• Variations — if your invention can work in different configurations, show at least one alternative embodiment.

Each figure should include descriptive text labels for clarity (e.g., client device, data processing module, output interface), but do not add figure numbers or reference labels—Idea Clerk automatically makes those assignments when generating your patent application.

What Idea Clerk Already Generates for You

Idea Clerk automatically produces a set of standard formal figures based on your invention type. These include:

• Networked computing environments

• Swim diagrams and flowcharts

• System or block/component diagrams

These are formal-quality drawings that meet USPTO standards and do not need to be replaced when converting your provisional to a non-provisional application.

Your focus should be on creating figures of embodiments of your specific invention—for example, how your unique algorithm integrates into a system, or how your device or process differs from existing solutions.

Basic USPTO Drawing Requirements

For U.S. utility patent applications, the USPTO requires that drawings be:

• Black-and-white, clean line drawings (no shading or color)

• Uniformly thick, solid lines with clear contrast

• Legible descriptive text labels (not dense paragraphs)

• Free of decorative elements or logos

• Properly scaled and aligned for 8½×11 inch pages

When Idea Clerk generates figures, they already comply with these standards—so you don’t have to worry about technical formatting.

Making Embodiment Drawings Quickly with ChatGPT

ChatGPT can generate simple, USPTO-style black-and-white line drawings based on your description.

Here’s how to use it effectively:

1. Extract key embodiment details from your invention description in Idea Clerk.

2. Prompt clearly:

   “Make a simple black-and-white line drawing showing a wearable device that includes a motion sensor, a wireless transceiver, and a control module.”
   “Create a diagram showing data flowing from a user interface to a model inference engine, then to a reporting module.”

   (Detailed prompt examples)

3. Keep it schematic. Use rectangles, circles, and arrows—no shading or realism needed.

4. Add descriptive text labels for clarity (e.g., “control module,” “cloud server”), but don’t include figure numbers or element references.

⚡ Tip: You can ask ChatGPT to “move the labels outside boxes,” “add arrows showing flow direction,” or “make the text larger”—then export the final image to upload directly into your Idea Clerk project.

These informal figures are perfect for capturing embodiments that extend beyond the standard set Idea Clerk generates automatically.

Other Useful Tips

• Use descriptive text labels, not internal codes or trademarks.

• Be consistent in naming (e.g., always “processing module,” not sometimes “engine”).

• Show what’s new. Emphasize parts that make your invention distinct.

• Include variations now—new figures generally cannot be added after a patent is filed.

• Paste your figures into your DOCX invention description for input to Idea Clerk.

The Bottom Line

Strong patent drawings help tell your invention’s story visually—showing structure, flow, and relationships in a way text can’t.

With Idea Clerk, you already get formal, professional-quality figures automatically for your application type. Your task is to illustrate your unique embodiments—the real-world configurations that make your invention yours.

You can generate them in minutes with ChatGPT and upload them directly into Idea Clerk as part of your invention description, creating a complete, compliant package that’s ready to file the same day.