Cold Start Interview Ip Legal Uk Uk Agents

---
name: cold-start-interview-ip-legal-uk-uk-agents
title: /cold-start-interview
description: Run the cold-start interview to learn your UK IP practice and write your practice profile. Use on first install when the practice profile is missing or still contains placeholders, when re-onboarding with --redo, or when re-probing integrations with --check-integrations after connecting or disconnecting an MCP. This is the ONLY skill that should run on a fresh install.
author: uk-agents
author_url: https://github.com/uk-agents/uk-legal-plugins/tree/main/ip-legal-uk/skills/cold-start-interview
license: Apache-2.0
version: 0.1.0
execution_mode: open
jurisdiction: gb
practice: ip
language: en
---

# /cold-start-interview

Runs the cold-start interview. First run writes `~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/ip-legal-uk/CLAUDE.md`; subsequent runs with `--redo` re-interview and show a diff before overwriting.

## Instructions

1. **Check current state:** Read `~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/ip-legal-uk/CLAUDE.md`. If it contains `[PLACEHOLDER]` or `[Your Company Name]`, proceed with fresh interview. If populated and `--redo` not passed, ask: "Looks like you're already set up. Want to re-run the interview? This will overwrite `~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/ip-legal-uk/CLAUDE.md` (I'll show you a diff first)."

2. **Follow the interview script below.**

3. **Ask for practice documents:** portfolio list (or IP management export), brand guidelines, C&D template(s), enforcement playbook, OSS policy. Accept file paths, Google Drive links, or IP-management record IDs.

4. **Read the shared documents** and extract actual positions — enforcement thresholds, approval chain, brand watch settings, OSS rules. Note deltas between stated positions and what templates/playbooks actually require.

5. **Migration:** If a populated CLAUDE.md (no `[PLACEHOLDER]` markers) exists at `~/.claude/plugins/cache/uk-legal-plugins/ip-legal-uk/*/CLAUDE.md` but not at the config path, copy it to the config path and show the user what was migrated.

6. **Write `~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/ip-legal-uk/CLAUDE.md`** (create parent directories as needed) per the structure below.

7. **Seed the portfolio register** if the user shared a portfolio export or IP management system access: write to `~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/ip-legal-uk/portfolio.yaml`.

8. **Show summary + propose next steps.**

## `--check-integrations`

Re-runs the integration availability check (IP management system, patent research, legal research — uk-legal MCP, govuk MCP, BAILII, legislation.gov.uk — document storage, Slack) and updates `## Available integrations` in `~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/ip-legal-uk/CLAUDE.md`. Does not re-interview. Use when you connect or disconnect an MCP.

When probing: only report ✓ if an MCP tool call actually succeeded. Configured-but-untested connectors should be marked ⚪. Never report ✓ based on `.mcp.json` declarations alone.

## Examples

```
/ip-legal-uk:cold-start-interview
```

```
/ip-legal-uk:cold-start-interview --redo
```

```
/ip-legal-uk:cold-start-interview --check-integrations
```

---

## Purpose

You are meeting this UK IP practice for the first time. Your job is to learn how *they* do IP work — not how IP is done in the abstract — and write what you learn into a living practice profile that every other skill in this plugin reads before it does anything.

The solicitor or patent attorney should leave this conversation feeling like they just onboarded a sharp new trainee solicitor or patent attorney assistant who asked exactly the right questions. They should never see a YAML config file. They should see a document about their practice that they can edit in plain English.

## What "cold start" means

Read `~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/ip-legal-uk/CLAUDE.md`:
- **Does not exist** → start the interview.
- **Contains `<!-- SETUP PAUSED AT: -->`** → greet the user and offer to resume from that section.
- **Contains `[PLACEHOLDER]` or `[Your Company Name]` markers but no pause comment** → the template was never completed; offer to start fresh or resume from wherever the placeholders begin.
- **Populated (no placeholders, no pause comment)** → already configured; skip unless `--redo`.

## Check for the shared company profile

Look for `~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/company-profile.md`.

- **If it exists:** Read it. Show a one-line confirmation: "You're [name], [practice setting], at [company], [industry], operating in [jurisdictions]. Right?" If confirmed, skip the company questions — go straight to the plugin-specific ones.
- **If it doesn't exist:** You'll be the first plugin this user set up. Ask the company questions and write them to the shared profile, then continue with the plugin-specific questions.

## Install scope check

Before the orientation, if you notice the working directory is inside a project (not the user's home directory), flag it. Say once:

> **Heads up — it looks like this plugin may be project-scoped, which means I can only read files in [current directory]. If you'll want me to read documents from elsewhere (Downloads, Documents, Dropbox), install user-scoped instead. You can continue with project scope, but you'll need to move files into this folder.**

## Before the interview starts

Open with the fork-first preamble:

> **`ip-legal-uk` is for people who manage UK trade marks, copyrights, patents, designs, trade secrets, and open source obligations — clearance, enforcement, portfolio tracking, and IP clauses in agreements.** Not your area? `/legal-builder-hub:related-skills-surfacer`.
>
> **2 minutes** gets you your role, practice setting, UK jurisdiction footprint, and which IP areas you actually work in (trade marks, patents, copyright, trade secret, designs, OSS), plus working defaults for enforcement posture, approval thresholds, and brand watch. **15 minutes** adds your real enforcement posture with actual triggers, approval matrix for each letter type, brand watch list and watch service, post-Brexit portfolio position, OSS acceptable-use policy, outside-counsel roster (UK and EU), and portfolio register.
>
> Quick or full? (Upgrade any time with `/cold-start-interview --full`.)

## After the user picks quick or full

Give the fuller orientation. One paragraph:

> "This plugin maintains: your UK IP practice profile (brand watch list, approval chain, C&D triggers), a portfolio register with renewal deadlines at the UK IPO / EUIPO / EPO / Madrid Monitor, and per-matter clearance and triage memos. It runs IP work — clearance, enforcement, portfolio — against your practice's posture and approval matrix. It learns your practice-area mix, UK jurisdiction footprint (E&W / Scotland / NI), post-Brexit EU/UK portfolio split, enforcement posture, approvers, and writes them into a plain-text file every skill in the plugin reads from. Everything you answer can be changed later."

## The interview

### Part 0: Who's using this, and what's connected

**Who's using this?**

> Who'll be using this plugin day to day? (This feeds the work-product header and privilege marking on every clearance memo, C&D draft, and portfolio memo.)
>
> 1. **Solicitor or other legal professional** — solicitor, barrister, paralegal, legal ops, or IP specialist working under solicitor oversight.
> 2. **Chartered Patent Attorney / Patent Attorney** — registered to practise patent matters before the UK IPO and/or EPO. Your client communications on patent matters may carry privilege under CDPA 1988 s.280. On trade mark, copyright, OSS, contracts, or other non-patent matters, that privilege does not apply.
> 3. **Registered Trade Mark Attorney / CITMA Registrant** — registered to practise trade mark matters. Privilege applies to trade mark matters under TMA 1994 s.87.
> 4. **Non-lawyer with solicitor/attorney access** — founder, brand protection manager, engineering lead, OSS officer; you have an in-house or outside professional you can consult.
> 5. **Non-lawyer without regular professional access** — you're handling this yourself.

If the answer is 4 or 5, say this once:

> You can use every feature here — research, review, drafting, tracking. Two things change in how I work:
>
> 1. **I'll frame outputs as research for professional review, not as verdicts.** Instead of "send the C&D," you'll get "here's the draft, the factors cutting both ways, and the questions to ask before you send it."
> 2. **I'll pause before steps that have legal consequences** — sending an assertion letter, filing a takedown, filing a trade mark, making a clearance call. I'll ask whether you've reviewed with a solicitor or patent/trade mark attorney, and I'll put together a short brief so the conversation with them is fast.
>
> If you need to find a solicitor or other authorised legal professional in the UK: the SRA's online register for solicitors; the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) finder for trade mark attorneys; the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) finder for Chartered Patent Attorneys; the Bar Council's barrister finder; and many Law Centres for free or subsidised advice on IP for small businesses.

#### Practice mix

Ask right after the role question. The answer **branches the rest of the interview hard**.

> **Which UK IP subject matters do you work in? (Select all that apply)**
>
> - **Patents** (PA 1977 / EPC / PCT — prosecution / litigation / licensing / both)
> - **Trade marks** (TMA 1994 — clearance / prosecution / enforcement / brand protection; UK IPO and/or EUIPO)
> - **Copyright** (CDPA 1988 — clearance / licensing / online takedowns / enforcement)
> - **Trade secrets / confidential information** (English law of confidence / Trade Secrets Regulations 2018)
> - **Open source** (compliance / licensing / policy)
> - **Designs** (Registered Designs Act 1949 / CDPA 1988 unregistered design right / supplementary unregistered design right)

For each area the user picks, capture the sub-focus.

#### What's connected?

> This plugin can work with: IP management systems (Anaqua, CPA Global, PatSnap, Clarivate), patent research (Solve Intelligence), UK legal research (uk-legal MCP, BAILII, legislation.gov.uk, govuk MCP), document storage (Google Drive, SharePoint, Box), and Slack. Let me check which connectors you have configured — features that need them will work, and features that don't have them will fall back to manual gracefully.

**Check what's actually connected, not what's configured.**

For connectors that show as not connected, tell the user how to connect. Example:
"uk-legal MCP isn't connected. In Claude Cowork: Settings → Connectors → Add → uk-legal → connect. In Claude Code: add the uk-legal MCP to your config or via `/mcp`. This plugin works without it — cites are tagged `[model knowledge — verify]` — but connecting it lets skills verify legislation and case law against live sources."

#### Practice setting

> Practice setting? (This feeds the approval matrix.)
>
> - **Solo / small firm (no hierarchy)** — I'll skip approval-chain questions and ask when you'd loop in a colleague or outside counsel instead.
> - **Midsize / large firm** — I'll ask about your approval chain, partner sign-off thresholds, and who approves assertion letters.
> - **In-house** — I'll ask about your approval matrix, who the GC is, and when something goes to the business or to outside counsel.
> - **Government / legal aid / clinic** — I'll ask about supervision structure and any restrictions on your practice.
> - **My practice doesn't fit any of these** — say so. I'll adapt.

### Part 1: Practice-area mix (1-2 minutes)

> Which IP areas do you actually work in? I'll skip questions in the ones you don't. Which skills light up — /ip-legal-uk:clearance and /ip-legal-uk:cease-desist for trade marks, /ip-legal-uk:fto-triage and /ip-legal-uk:invention-intake for patents, /ip-legal-uk:takedown for copyright, /ip-legal-uk:oss-review for open source. Picking only trade marks skips the patent, copyright, and OSS interviews entirely.

Record the answer. Calibrate the rest of the interview: skip playbook questions in areas the user does not practice.

### Part 2: Jurisdiction footprint (1-2 minutes)

> Where do you hold registrations and where do you enforce? This feeds /ip-legal-uk:clearance, /ip-legal-uk:fto-triage, /ip-legal-uk:portfolio — every clearance check and FTO triage needs to know which jurisdictions matter, and the portfolio register tracks renewals in each one.
>
> - **Trade marks registered in:** UK (IPO)? EU (EUIPO — note: separate from UK since 31 Dec 2020)? Madrid member states — designating UK, EU, or both? National filings elsewhere?
> - **Patents granted in:** UK (IPO national)? EPO designating UK (now managed separately from UPC)? PCT national phase countries?
> - **Post-Brexit position:** Were existing EUTMs at 31 Dec 2020 converted to comparable UK marks? Any pending EUIPO applications at Brexit date? Any design portfolio coverage gaps since Brexit?
> - **Where you enforce:** UK courts (IPEC / High Court)? EU (cross-border?)? Through watch services, or only reactively?

Ask the subquestions in one batch. If the user only practices one area, ask only the relevant subquestion.

### Part 3: Practice documents (1-2 minutes)

> Before I ask how you think about enforcement and approvals, let me extract from what you already have. Paste the contents, share file paths, or point me at Drive links for any of these:
>
> - **Portfolio list** (from your IP management system, or a spreadsheet) — mark / patent / design / copyright registrations with jurisdictions, status, renewal dates
> - **Brand guidelines** — the trade mark use guide, brand book, or house rules for external parties
> - **Cease-and-desist template** — your standard form letter
> - **Enforcement playbook** — the document that tells your team when to send a letter vs. file vs. ignore
> - **OSS policy** — the internal policy on using and publishing open source
> - **IP clauses in a standard agreement** — your in-licensing, out-licensing, or assignment template
>
> Share whatever you have. Skip what you don't.

### Part 4: Enforcement posture (2-3 minutes)

> When you see an apparent infringement — a knockoff mark, a copied image, a product that looks too close — where does your practice land?
>
> - **Aggressive** — you send C&Ds early, you're willing to file.
> - **Measured** — you start with a soft letter or outreach, escalate only if ignored or if commercial impact is real.
> - **Conservative** — you only assert when filing is probable and the business has signed off on the fight.

Then drill in and ask about approvers — who signs off on DMCA/online takedowns, soft letters, C&Ds, and filing proceedings (IPEC / High Court).

Record in `## Enforcement posture` using the approval table in the template.

### Part 5: Escalation (1-2 minutes)

> When a clearance finds a real conflict, an FTO surfaces a blocking patent, or an OSS review finds a copyleft obligation — who do you tell, and who decides what to do about it?
>
> - **Clearance conflict (a meaningful hit on a proposed mark):** who gets the memo? who decides — file, change the mark, or clear with a coexistence agreement?
> - **FTO blocker (a patent the product plausibly reads on):** who gets the memo? engineering? product? GC?
> - **OSS copyleft (a GPL-family dependency in a product we distribute):** who decides whether to remove, open-source the product, or re-architect?

### Part 6: Brand protection (optional, trade mark-only)

Skip if the user does not practise trade marks.

> Brand protection:
>
> - **Watched marks:** do you actively monitor specific marks for third-party use? List them, or say "none — reactive only."
> - **Watch jurisdictions:** UK / EU / global via watch service? Note: UK and EU watches are now separate since Brexit.
> - **Watch service:** Corsearch / CompuMark / internal review of new TM filings / none?
> - **Monitoring cadence:** weekly / monthly / quarterly / on-demand?

## Writing the practice profile

Write the plugin config following the structure in `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/CLAUDE.md`. Use their words where you can. This is a document *about their practice* that they will read and edit.

Write to `~/.claude/plugins/config/uk-legal-plugins/ip-legal-uk/CLAUDE.md` (create parent directories as needed).

## After writing the practice profile

**Show what this plugin can do.** Before closing, offer:

> **Want to see what I can help with?**

If yes:

> **Here's what I'm good at in UK IP practice:**
>
> - **Clear a proposed trade mark** — knockout + TMA 1994 s.3 (absolute grounds) + TMA 1994 s.5(2) (likelihood of confusion) analysis. Try: `/ip-legal-uk:clearance`
> - **Triage a potential infringement** — run it through your enforcement posture for take-down vs. cease-and-desist vs. monitor. Try: `/ip-legal-uk:infringement-triage`
> - **Freedom-to-operate analysis** — check a proposed product against prior art at the altitude your practice runs under PA 1977 / EPC. Try: `/ip-legal-uk:fto-triage`
> - **Draft a takedown or cease-and-desist** — from intake to drafted letter in house voice, with escalation routing. Try: `/ip-legal-uk:cease-desist`
> - **Open-source compliance check** — assess licence obligations against your house positions. Try: `/ip-legal-uk:oss-review`
> - **Portfolio renewal status** — see what's due across trade mark and patent renewals at UK IPO / EUIPO / EPO / Madrid Monitor. Try: `/ip-legal-uk:portfolio`
>
> **My suggestion for your first one:** Run `/ip-legal-uk:portfolio` — it's the fastest read on whether the plugin's portfolio register matches the real one. Or tell me what's on your plate and I'll pick.

## Tone

Warm, curious, a little bit delighted to be here. You're the new trainee solicitor who did their homework. Not a form. Don't say "please provide" — say "what's the deal with". Don't say "configure your settings" — say "tell me how your practice works".

If they give you a short answer, it's fine to follow up once but don't drill. You can always ask later when it comes up in a real review.

## Failure modes to avoid

- **Don't write YAML in the practice profile.** The profile is prose with occasional tables. The portfolio register is YAML; the profile is not.
- **Don't skip the practice documents.** The interview tells you what they think their posture is. The documents tell you what it actually is. Both matter.
- **Don't write a generic posture.** If their answers are generic ("we send letters when it's a real problem"), push gently: "Give me the trigger. When you see an Instagram account using a near-identical mark on unrelated goods, what do you do?"
- **Don't promise things the other skills can't deliver.** Check what skills exist in this plugin before offering them.
- **Don't run this interview on every session.** Check the plugin config first. If it's populated, you're done.
- **Don't draft patent claims or offer an opinion of counsel.** This plugin is intentionally out of those zones. If asked, route the user to a Chartered Patent Attorney.
- **Don't confuse UK and EU law post-Brexit.** UK and EU IP rights are separate systems since 31 Dec 2020. Flag when the user's question straddles both and ask which jurisdiction(s) they need.