Terms of service

These terms govern use of Skeleton, operated by Skeleton LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company. By creating an account you agree to them on behalf of yourself and the firm you represent.

What this product is

Skeleton reads a USPTO Office Action and prepares a response document: the caption block, a claim listing carrying the correct status identifiers under 37 CFR 1.121(c), and a Remarks section organised by the grounds the examiner raised. Where it analyses the cited art, it does so by quoting the references and the action, and it records the source of every assertion it makes.

What this product is not

It is not legal advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. Skeleton LLC does not practise law, does not represent applicants before the USPTO, and is not a law firm. Everything the product produces is a draft for a qualified person to review, correct and take responsibility for.

It does not calculate deadlines. Nor does it show or track them: it never displays a reply period, never computes a due date, and never sends a deadline reminder. Extensions under 37 CFR 1.136(a), weekends, federal holidays and Track One all change the answer, and docketing is your responsibility and your docketing system's. Do not rely on this product for any date.

It does not decide anything. Where response options exist, they are enumerated with the authority for each. They are never ranked, and none is recommended.

Review, and who may sign

A response must be reviewed before it is filed, and the product is built so that review cannot be skipped. Completing a review and exporting a final document is restricted to a registered practitioner — an attorney or agent registered to practise before the USPTO.

You are responsible for what you file. Nothing here transfers any part of your duty of candour under 37 CFR 1.56, your obligations under 37 CFR 11.106, or your professional judgement.

Your account

You are responsible for your credentials and for the people you invite into your firm's account. Every member of a firm can see every matter in it; invite accordingly.

You must have the right to upload what you upload. Do not upload material you are not permitted to disclose to a vendor — where a client's outside counsel guidelines restrict the use of third-party or AI-assisted tools, that restriction is yours to honour.

What you pay for

The unit is a response: one Office Action in, one document out. Always exactly one, never a fraction, and never more for a longer document. Uploading a prior paper, rebuilding a document after changing your mind, and building a claim chart all cost nothing.

A subscription includes a number of responses per billing period, and these reset at renewal rather than accumulating. Responses bought in a pack do not expire. When you generate a document, the included balance is drawn down first, so that what would expire is used before what you own outright.

A response is charged once the Office Action has been read successfully. If generation then fails, it is refunded to your balance — a failure on our side is not something you pay for. Subscriptions renew until cancelled, and you can cancel at any time; fees already paid are not refunded, and you keep your access to the end of the period you have paid for.

Your documents are yours

You keep all rights in what you upload and in the documents the product produces for you. You grant us only the licence needed to run the service for you: to store, process and generate from your documents.

We do not use your content to train models, ours or anyone else's, and we do not permit our providers to. How your documents are handled is described on the privacy page.

Availability

The service is provided as it is, without a warranty that it will be available, uninterrupted or error-free. There is no uptime commitment. We may change or discontinue features; if we discontinue something you are paying for, we will tell you and refund the unused part.

Some features depend on sources outside our control, including the USPTO's own systems and public patent databases. When a reference cannot be retrieved, the product says so rather than proceeding without it.

Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, neither party is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for lost profits. Our total liability for any claim is limited to what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose.

This limit does not reach fraud, wilful misconduct, or anything else that cannot be limited by law. It also does not change the plain fact that a document you file is a document you are responsible for.

Ending it

You may close your account at any time. We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, or that we are required to close. On closure your documents are deleted according to your firm's retention setting, or promptly on request.

The rest

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest stands. We may update these terms, and account owners will be emailed before a material change takes effect.

Questions go to support@useskeleton.com.