Version 1.2 · 28 October 2026 (Version 1.1)
This version was replaced by Version 1.3 on 30 October 2026. Matters sent while it was in force stay under it (section 11.4). The current terms are at handleip.com/terms.html.
These terms are between DroneFence Inc., a federal corporation (number 1547639-9) of 601 - 222 Somerset Street West, Office #6219, Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2G3, Canada, trading as HandleIP (“HandleIP”, “we”), and the registered patent practitioner who signs below (“you”). You accept them before HandleIP handles your first matter, by replying to HandleIP’s email to confirm that you accept them, by clicking “I agree” on HandleIP’s acceptance page, or by signing below, including electronically. HandleIP keeps a record of the version you accepted and when.
1.1 What HandleIP does. You email an Office Action issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) to hans@handleip.com. HandleIP returns an AI-prepared draft response with supporting materials, and before drafting may send you a short list of response options to choose from (together, “Drafts”). You may request one round of revisions per Office Action, at no extra charge, and HandleIP will return revised Drafts.
1.2 What HandleIP does not do. HandleIP does not file anything with the USPTO, sign any paper, give legal advice, or communicate with your client or the USPTO. Some issues raised in an Office Action may be outside the scope of a Draft; each delivery identifies any issue the Draft deliberately omits.
1.3 Early Access. HandleIP is offered in early access. The drafting system is under active development, so the quality, format and features of Drafts may change from one matter to the next as we improve it. The service may also change, be interrupted or stop at any time.
2.1 Registered practitioners only. You confirm that you are a patent attorney or patent agent registered to practice before the USPTO and in active status. You will tell us promptly if that changes. HandleIP is not available to self-represented applicants or inventors.
2.2 Each request. Every request must state the name and USPTO registration number of the registered practitioner responsible for the matter. HandleIP checks active registration on the USPTO’s public roster before starting work, and will hold any matter it cannot confirm.
2.3 Staff. Your staff may send requests on your behalf. You remain responsible for every request sent in your name and for every Draft delivered to you.
2.4 Your authority. You confirm that your firm (if any) and your client permit you to use HandleIP for the matters you send, including the processing described in section 5.
2.5 No use for others. You will use HandleIP only for matters in which you, or a registered practitioner you work with, represents the applicant. You will not give Drafts to a self-represented applicant, an inventor or any other non-practitioner to prepare or file their own papers, and you will not let anyone who is not a registered practitioner, or your staff acting for you, use HandleIP.
3.1 You will send only matters on published US applications.
3.2 You will not send unpublished technical information, information subject to a secrecy order, or information subject to export controls, including in revision requests.
3.3 HandleIP may decline any matter whose publication status it cannot confirm.
4.1 Nature of HandleIP. HandleIP is an AI drafting tool for use only by registered patent practitioners. DroneFence is not a law firm and does not practice law. Neither DroneFence nor HandleIP is registered or recognized to practice before the USPTO. DroneFence does not represent you or your client, and no attorney-client relationship exists between DroneFence and you or your client.
4.2 What you receive. Drafts are prepared by AI systems at your request, for your review as a registered practitioner. They are a starting point for your own work. They are not legal advice, not reviewed or file-ready papers, and not a substitute for your professional judgment. Any option marked as a default is a starting point for you to weigh, not a recommendation or legal advice. AI output can be wrong in ways that look right: treat no statement in a Draft as fact until you have verified it.
4.3 Known limitations. Drafts may, among other things:
4.4 Your responsibilities. Before filing or otherwise relying on any Draft, you are responsible for:
(a) verifying every statement, quotation and citation against its source;
(b) confirming that the reply addresses every ground of objection and rejection (37 CFR 1.111(b));
(c) confirming support for, and the inventorship implications of, any amendment;
(d) making every strategy decision, in consultation with your client; and
(e) meeting your own professional obligations, including those under 37 CFR 11.18(b). Under USPTO guidance, relying on the accuracy of an AI tool is not a reasonable inquiry.
4.5 Our checks. HandleIP’s automated checks, and any human handling of your matter, test only whether the system ran as designed and conformed to internal standards. They are not a legal review, and they do not establish that a Draft is correct, complete or responsive.
4.6 Deadlines. Any deadline or date HandleIP reports is for convenience only and may be wrong. You must docket from your own records. Every response deadline remains your responsibility. HandleIP does not guarantee any turnaround time. Any turnaround target is counted in business hours and pauses whenever HandleIP is waiting for you.
4.7 Use and reliance. Drafts and delivery notes are provided to you only. No one else, including your client, may rely on them. Do not include any delivery note or HandleIP identifier in a paper filed with the USPTO.
4.8 Delivery notice. Each delivery includes the short notice in Schedule A, which summarizes this section. The notice is a reminder only. This section governs.
4.9 You are the qualified reviewer. You confirm that you will meaningfully review every Draft before it is used in any client matter, that you have authority to change it, and that you remain responsible for it. Each delivery tells you that the Draft was produced using AI.
5.1 Confidentiality. HandleIP will keep confidential the non-public content you send and the Drafts we return. We will use it only to provide the service to you, and will disclose it only to the service providers in 5.2 or where the law requires.
5.2 AI processing. To prepare Drafts, HandleIP sends your emails, attachments, instructions and revision requests, together with the Office Action and file history, to third-party AI model providers. Current providers: Anthropic PBC and OpenAI, L.L.C., both United States, each under its commercial API terms. Under those terms, neither provider may train models on this content, and each must keep it confidential. HandleIP will tell you before adding a provider.
5.3 Your professional obligations. You confirm that:
(a) you have evaluated this processing under your professional obligations, including 37 CFR 11.106 and any applicable state rules;
(b) you have obtained any client consent those obligations require; and
(c) you will send only what a request needs, and not forward client communications unless necessary.
5.4 Security incidents. HandleIP will tell you without undue delay if we become aware of unauthorized access to your content.
6.1 What we hold. Your name, email address and USPTO registration number; the emails and attachments you send; the Drafts we return; and records of the checks we run.
6.2 Where it is processed. HandleIP is based in Canada. Your content is stored on HandleIP’s systems and with our email provider, and is processed by the AI providers in 5.2. It may be stored and processed in Canada, the United States and other countries where our service providers operate, and may be accessible to courts and authorities in those countries.
6.3 Retention. We keep emails and Drafts for 30 days after a matter’s last delivery, then delete them, except records of the checks we run and anything we must keep by law. You may ask us to delete your content sooner.
6.4 Your rights. You may ask to access or correct your personal information, or end your participation, by emailing hans@handleip.com. We will respond within 30 days. You may also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
7.1 HandleIP may use your feedback and comments about Drafts to improve the service.
7.2 HandleIP will never reproduce the content of your matters in a Draft for another user, and will never disclose your identity or your client’s identity to another user.
8.1 Your Drafts. As between you and HandleIP, you may use, edit and file the Drafts we deliver to you, without restriction, for the matters they concern.
8.2 HandleIP’s service. HandleIP keeps all rights in its software, prompts, methods and know-how, including improvements made under section 7.
8.3 Third-party material. Drafts quote and cite patents, published applications and other references for the purpose of argument. HandleIP grants no rights in any third-party material.
9.1 Fees. US$20 for the first Office Action you send, and US$200 for each later Office Action.
9.2 When fees apply. A fee is charged only when HandleIP delivers a Draft. There is no charge for a matter that HandleIP holds, declines or cannot complete.
9.3 Invoicing and payment. HandleIP invoices by email through Stripe after each delivery. Invoices are in US dollars and are payable within 30 days of the invoice date. If an invoice is overdue, HandleIP may pause new matters until it is paid.
9.4 Refunds. If you are not satisfied with a Draft, tell us within 30 days of its invoice and we will refund the fee for it, or cancel the invoice if it is unpaid.
9.5 Taxes. Fees do not include taxes. You will pay any sales, use or similar taxes that apply to the fees, other than taxes on HandleIP’s income.
9.6 Price changes. HandleIP may change its fees for future matters by updating these terms under section 11.4.
9.7 Ending. Either of us may end your participation at any time by email. HandleIP may end Early Access for everyone on 7 days’ email notice. Matters already received will be completed or returned, and fees for Drafts already delivered remain payable.
10.1 No warranty. The service and all Drafts are provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, HandleIP disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and completeness. HandleIP does not warrant that Drafts are accurate, complete or error-free. You use the service at your own risk.
10.2 Limit of liability. To the extent the law allows:
(a) HandleIP’s total liability arising out of these terms or the service, however caused, is limited to the fees you paid HandleIP, less any refunds, in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim; and
(b) HandleIP is not liable for indirect, consequential, special or punitive loss, or for loss of claim scope, of patent rights, or of a filing date, or for a missed deadline.
10.3 Your indemnity. You will indemnify HandleIP against claims by your clients or any other third party arising from a paper you file or advice you give, or from your breach of sections 2, 3, 4.9 or 5.3, except to the extent caused by HandleIP’s willful misconduct.
10.4 Sections 4, 5, 8, 10 and 11 survive the end of your participation, as does your obligation to pay fees for Drafts already delivered.
11.1 Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there.
11.2 Arbitration. All disputes arising out of or in connection with these terms, or in relation to any legal relationship associated with or derived from these terms, will be resolved by final and binding arbitration under the Arbitration Rules of the ADR Institute of Canada, Inc., using the Expedited/Simplified procedure in those Rules. The seat of arbitration will be Toronto, Ontario. The language of the arbitration will be English. There will be a single arbitrator, and hearings will be held by videoconference unless the arbitrator directs otherwise. Claims may be brought only on an individual basis, not as part of a class or representative action. Either party may instead bring a claim within the monetary limit of a small claims court, and either party may ask a court for urgent interim relief.
11.3 Notices. Notices under these terms may be given by email: to HandleIP at hans@handleip.com, and to you at the address you sign up with.
11.4 Changes. HandleIP may update these terms for future matters by emailing you the new version at least 14 days before it takes effect, and, for material changes, asking you to accept it again. Matters already received stay under the version in force when they were sent.
11.5 Entire agreement. These terms are the whole agreement between us about HandleIP. If a court finds any part unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
11.6 Signatures. These terms may be accepted electronically, including by email reply or by clicking “I agree”, and may be signed in counterparts.
HandleIP keeps a record of each acceptance: name, USPTO registration number, email, terms version, and date and time.
Included in the body of every email that delivers a Draft or a revision, at the top of the email body, and never in a paper to be filed:
HANDLEIP NOTICE This draft was prepared by AI, at your request, for your review as a registered practitioner. HandleIP (DroneFence Inc., Ottawa) is not a law firm, is not registered to practice before the USPTO, and does not represent you or your client. This is not legal advice and not a substitute for your judgment. Before filing, verify every statement and citation, confirm every rejection is answered, and make all strategy decisions. Our checks are not a legal review. Docket deadlines from your own records. Requires Practitioner Review. Governed by the HandleIP Early Access Terms you accepted.