What’s New in IPBases: The 2026 Feature Updates

The biggest IPBases release cycle so far

Over the past few months IPBases has shipped its largest set of updates since launch. The short version: the system now covers the full working day of an IP practice — not just the trademark records, but the filing workflow around them, the money side, client and associate communication, and even the firm’s public website. This post walks through everything that’s new in the 2026 releases and why each piece matters for a working trademark management system.

A dedicated Madrid Protocol module

Madrid filings are no longer flat trademark rows. IPBases now models a WIPO International Registration as a parent record with a designation per country — each designation carrying its own status (pending, provisional refusal, registered) and each one linkable to a national trademark record where it makes sense. Renewals follow the WIPO cycle, not the national one.

• Madrid sweep — scans your existing portfolio for marks that were actually filed via Madrid but recorded as plain national filings, and lets you flip them onto the correct route (and the correct renewal cycle) in a click.
• Central-attack handling — if the basic mark ceases, the IR record reflects it, so dependent designations don’t silently keep looking healthy.
• Designation-level workflow — respond to a provisional refusal in one country while another designation proceeds to grant, all under the same IR.

The background on why this structure matters is in our Madrid Protocol software guide — now updated for the new module.

A new filing flow: route chooser + 4-step wizard

Creating a trademark now starts with a route chooser: national filing in a single country, the same mark across multiple countries at once, or a Madrid Protocol filing. From there, the 4-step wizard carries the record through the parts that used to live in separate screens:

• Step 1 — the record: mark, classes, applicant, priority, images.
• Step 2 — invoices: link or raise the invoice for the filing right inside the wizard, so billing never drifts away from the matter. (More on billing in our IP law firm software guide.)
• Step 3 — action required: deadlines and tasks generated from the filing.
• Step 4 — client update: tell the client, without leaving the system (see next section).

This is what a workflow for trademarks should look like: one path from instruction to filed-invoiced-notified, with nothing left in a side spreadsheet.

Client updates by email or WhatsApp — templated, previewed, logged

Step 4 of the wizard is a full client-update engine: pick a template, and the system merges in the trademark’s live data (mark, application number, status, dates), shows you a preview, then sends by email — or hands you a pre-filled WhatsApp message for clients who live on their phone. Every update is logged against the matter, so “did we tell the client?” has an answer in the record, not in someone’s memory.

Online payments: “Pay Now” on invoices

Invoices in the client portal (and on the staff side) now carry a Pay Now button backed by Stripe Checkout. The security model is strict by design: opening a checkout page never marks anything paid — only a verified Stripe event confirms payment and updates the invoice. Clients pay by card in their own currency flow; your team stops chasing bank-transfer screenshots.

A portal for your foreign associates

Alongside the client portal, IPBases now has a view-only associate portal. A foreign agent signs in and sees exactly one slice of the system: the clients routed through them, and those clients’ trademarks — nothing else. Every section of the portal is individually switchable by the admin, and the restriction is enforced server-side, not just hidden in the menu. For firms running regional networks across the GCC and beyond, this replaces the weekly “status list” email entirely.

Automated renewal reminders

Renewal chasing is now automated end-to-end. An automation panel lets admins set the reminder policy, run the renewal check on demand, send a test email to verify delivery, and review a log of what went out. From the renewal report, one click sends a client a single grouped reminder covering all of their marks due in the window — a clean table of marks and dates, not ten separate emails. The full picture of how docketing and renewals work is in our docketing & renewal guide, also updated.

Email marketing, on your own sending domain

A new email-marketing module lets the firm build a campaign — subject plus a mobile-responsive HTML body with images — import recipients by paste or CSV, preview, and send in batches through the same Mailgun path your client email already uses. It’s outbound-only, with a public unsubscribe link, and it never touches the inbound reply flow.

A built-in website & CMS

IPBases can now run the firm’s public website from inside the system: pages, blog posts, a media library, menus, redirects, and an HTML importer for bringing an existing site in. One login, one database, one backup — the practice system and the site it markets are the same install.

Smaller but meaningful

• Executive brief — a dashboard block that gives partners the period-over-period numbers (filings, invoices, collections) at a glance.
• Permission groups & multi-office settings — role bundles you define once and apply to users; offices as first-class settings.
• Temporary access links — short-lived, revocable auto-login links for demos and support sessions.
• Storage options — documents on local disk, S3, Cloudflare R2, or Google Drive.
• Mail delivery visibility — Mailgun webhook events land in the mail log, so bounces and deliveries are visible per message.