Terms of Service

Last updated October 19, 2025

By clicking/checking the “I Agree” button/box, you agree to be bound by these terms of service and all exhibits, order forms, and incorporated policies (the “Terms of Service”). Our services are not available to persons or entities that are not legally eligible to be bound by the Terms of Service.

Identification of Parties

The Terms of Service is a contract made between Spirgel Patent Services, LLC (“we”, “our”, or “us”) and you (“you”, “your”, “client”, or “client’s”). 

Our representation is limited to the matters as described below. We represent only you and no other individual or entity in these matters. Furthermore, there are no intended third-party beneficiaries to the relationship between you and us.

Scope of Representation

We have been engaged to represent you for the purpose of performing prior art searches for inventions you would like to patent in the United States, reviewing pre-drafted United States provisional and non-provisional utility patent applications and providing feedback and/or suggested edits if applicable, filing said pre-drafted provisional and non-provisional utility United States patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and prosecuting said non-provisional utility United States patent applications with the USPTO. 

You represent that you do not know of any related matters that would require our services under the Terms of Service. If such matters arise later, you agree that the Terms of Service do not apply to any related matter. Therefore, a separate agreement for provision of services and payment for those services will be required if you wish to engage us to perform services pertaining to such matters.

Limited Scope of Representation

The Scope of Representation of the Terms of Service does not include advice or services regarding accounting, tax, personal financial matters, business management, or any legal matters other than patent prosecution with the USPTO. We may not be qualified to provide legal advice or services that are not directly related to patent prosecution with the USPTO. Any communication from us should not be considered legal advice. Since patent prosecution relates only to attempting to obtain a granted patent from the USPTO, we may not be able to provide advice or services on patent infringement, freedom to practice, or use of a granted patent. 

Prior art searches performed per the Terms of Service cover only material that is publicly available as of the date of the prior art search, and do not cover prior art that may publish between the completion of a prior art search and the filing of a patent application for your invention. Any changes to your invention made after disclosure of your invention to us may warrant a new prior art search.

Decline of Representation

The services per the Terms of Service are performed at our discretion. We may decline to represent you in your matter for any reason, including not limited to the following:

·       Representing you would cause a conflict of interest.

·       Representing you would cause a breach of another agreement between us and a third party.

·       We find you to be in breach of the Terms of Service.

·       We determine that your pre-drafted patent application is not in a condition where a brief review and minor feedback/suggestions by us would put the application in a possible condition for allowance with the USPTO.

·       We determine that we are not able to adequately represent you in your matter. 

If we decline to represent you in your matter, any confidential information as defined below that you provide us will continue to be treated as such per the Terms of Service.

Non-Disclosure of Confidential Information

In order to properly represent you in the matter, you may be required to provide confidential information regarding your invention, which may include without limitation information regarding your technology, research, know-how, engineering drawings, engineering models, sketches, images, software code, software source documents, and techniques which is marked “confidential” or “proprietary” at the time of disclosure by you, or by its nature or content is reasonably distinguishable as confidential or proprietary information. 

Confidential information will not include any information that was in the public domain prior to the time of disclosure by you or has entered the public domain through no fault of us, was known to us without restriction at the time of disclosure by you, was independently developed by us without use of or reference to your confidential information, is rightfully disclosed to us by a third party without confidentiality restrictions, is disclosed with your prior written approval, or is disclosed pursuant to the order or requirement of a court, administrative agency, or other governmental body. 

We agree to hold your confidential information in confidence and to not use or disclose it to a third party until it is no longer considered confidential information per the Terms of Service (i.e., until it enters the public domain via a published patent application, via your disclosure to the public, or by other means per the Terms of Service). We will protect your confidential information with reasonable care to prevent unauthorized use, dissemination, or publication of your confidential information. We will promptly notify you of any misuse, misappropriation, or unauthorized disclosure of your confidential information which may come to our attention. We may disclose confidential information to our employees, agents, and independent contractors with a need-to-know, only as necessary basis, provided such parties have signed confidentiality agreements containing, or are otherwise bound by, confidentiality obligations at least as restrictive as those contained in the Terms of Service. 

You will retain all rights, title, and interest to your confidential information. The Terms of Service does not grant us any patent, copyright, or other intellectual property right that has issued or that may issue based on your confidential information.

Cooperation

In order for us to best serve you in the matters described herein, you agree that you will promptly and accurately respond to our questions and requests for information. During the patent application process, the USPTO may issue office actions with accompanying deadlines for response. We may provide you a “respond-by date” that may be in advance of said deadlines. This “respond-by date” allows us time to review your answers to our questions and prepare a proper response to said USPTO office actions. Failure to respond to our questions and/or requests for information by the “respond-by date” may result in additional USPTO fees or abandonment of your patent application(s).

Public Disclosure of Invention

We require you to provide us the date that your invention was first publicly disclosed (if the invention has been publicly disclosed at all), as well as the nature of the public disclosure. Please note that in the United States, you have a one (1) year grace period after the initial public disclosure of the invention to file a patent application.

Entity Status with the USPTO

We require that you disclose your entity status with the USPTO (large, small, or micro). We will provide the USPTO definitions of said entities upon request. If claiming small or micro entity status, you hereby certify that you meet all requirements to quality as a small or micro entity. Deliberately providing misinformation regarding your entity status with the USPTO is considered fraud.

Maintenance Fees/Annuities

We do not provide services for handling the monitoring or payment of maintenance fees on United States issued patents or foreign patent annuities. We strongly suggest that you retain a professional service firm to monitor and pay fees and annuities on your behalf with the USPTO and foreign patent offices. Failure to pay maintenance fees and annuities by applicable due dates may result in loss of patent rights.

Limited Number of Reviews

For the fees paid to us per the Terms of Service, we will provide up to two (2) iterations of feedback and/or suggested edits of each pre-drafted provisional patent application and pre-drafted non-provisional utility patent application, and up to two (2) drafts of a response to an office action from the USPTO. If you request further review, changes, or additions to a patent application and/or response to an office action after completion of the second iteration/draft, we will quote you a fixed fee for additional work on said patent application and/or response to an office action. Failure to pay said fixed fee timely will result in us withdrawing from our representation in said matter, and will not result in a refund of any fees previously paid regarding said matter.

Fees and Payments

Fees for services performed per the Terms of Service will be displayed to you at the time of purchasing said services. Fees are due upfront before any work is completed. These fees cover all applicable taxes, duties, and payment processing expenses.

If you are purchasing the service of a prior art search, the fees you pay cover a single prior art search for a single invention. 

If you are purchasing the service of reviewing/filing a pre-drafted provisional patent application or the service of reviewing/filing a pre-drafted non-provisional utility patent application, the fees you pay cover our professional fees for the work as well as the applicable USPTO basic filing, search, and examination fees. Note that additional USPTO fees may be due if it is found you do not qualify for the entity status you provide us, or if your application contains matter that results in additional USPTO fees (ex: excess of 20 claims, etc.). In these cases, you will need to pay the additional USPTO fees. Failure to pay the additional USPTO fees will result in withdrawal of our representation of you and possible abandonment of your patent application. 

If you are purchasing the service of reviewing, filing, and prosecuting a pre-drafted non-provisional utility patent application, the fees you pay cover ONLY the following:

·       Our professional fees for reviewing and filing the initial application, responding to application formalities actions, responding to non-final rejections, responding to final rejections, responding to Ex parte Quayle actions, and filing the issue fee payment if applicable.

·       The USPTO basic filing, search, and examination fees.

·       The USPTO issue fee if your application is granted by the USPTO.

Note that additional USPTO fees may be due if it is found you do not qualify for the entity status you provide us, or if your application contains matter that results in additional USPTO fees (ex: excess of 20 claims, etc.). In these cases, you will need to pay the additional USPTO fees. Failure to pay the additional USPTO fees will result in withdrawal of our representation of you and possible abandonment of your patent application. 

If you are purchasing the service of reviewing, filing, and prosecuting a pre-drafted non-provisional utility patent application, the fees you pay do NOT cover any professional fees or USPTO fees related to amendments made to your application not as a direct response to an office action, requests for continued examination, appeals, extensions of time, or any post-grant activities. Any professional fees or USPTO fees incurred outside the scope of the Terms of Service will be quoted and billed separately. Failure to pay these additional fees may result in us withdrawing from our representation of you and possible abandonment of your patent application. 

If you are purchasing the service of reviewing, filing, and prosecuting a pre-drafted non-provisional utility patent application, and in the event that your patent application goes abandoned, we will refund you the portion of the fees you pay us meant to cover the USPTO issue fee. We will submit a request for a method of payment via which to refund you this fee. Failure to respond to this request within 30 days will be deemed your non-refundable forfeiture of this fee to us. You are responsible for covering any payment processing expenses related to your requested method of payment for refunding this fee. 

If you wish to dispute any fees paid to us per the Terms of Service, you must submit a written dispute to us in writing within 30 days of the conclusion of your matter, which is defined as:

·       For a prior art search – The date the prior art search was sent to you.

·       For reviewing and filing a pre-drafted provisional or non-provisional utility patent application – The filing date of your application.

·       For reviewing, filing, and prosecuting a pre-drafted non-provisional utility patent application – The issue date of your application or the date at which your application goes abandoned.

Failure to submit a dispute within 30 days of the conclusion of your matter will be deemed your acceptance of all fees paid. In no circumstance will any refunds be given to you in excess of the professional fees paid by you for any given matter, with the exception of USPTO issue fees in certain circumstances described above.

Termination

You may terminate this representation at any time with or without cause by notifying us in writing of your desire to do so. Upon receipt of the notice to terminate representation, we will cease all work per the Terms of Service immediately. You will be responsible for paying all professional and USPTO fees incurred on your behalf in this matter until written notice of termination is received by us. If you terminate the representation before the conclusion of the matter, we will be entitled to receive from the proceeds of any recover a reasonable fee for the work we have performed based upon the amount of time required, complexity of the matter, the time frame within which the work was performed, the responsibility involved, as well as our experience, ability, reputation, and the results obtained. This fee is in addition to any professional and USPTO fees incurred on your behalf that have not previously been paid by you. 

With the exception of declining representation of you, which we may do before performing any work and which is effective immediately, we may terminate our representation of you per the Terms of Service at any time if we believe that we are, for any reason, no longer able to adequately represent you in the matter. We will provide you with thirty (30) days’ written notice of our election to terminate our representation. During this time, we will continue to represent you in the matter and bill for any applicable professional and government fees. You are responsible for paying the applicable professional and government fees incurred on your behalf during the thirty-day notice period. If we elect to terminate our representation, you will timely take all steps reasonably necessary and will cooperate as reasonably required to relieve us of any further obligation to perform services related to the matter, including the execution of any documents necessary to complete our withdrawal from representation, and including seeking alternative counsel to represent you in the matter.

File Retention and Destruction

At the conclusion of your matter, this matter will be closed, and we will retain a client file of your matter for a period of at least 1 year. We may store some or all client file materials in a digital format. In the process of digitizing such documents, any original paper documents provided by you will be returned to you. Any copies of paper documents provided by you will not be returned to you unless you request such copies in writing. After any or all paper documents are digitized, we will destroy all paper documents in the client file, subject to the exceptions noted above. At the expiration of the 1-year period, we may destroy all client file materials unless you notify us in writing that you wish to take possession of them. This clause applies to any client file materials being held or stored by a third-party vendor.

No Guarantee of Success

It is expressly acknowledged by you that we have not made any warranties or guarantees to you, nor have we given you any assurances as to the favorable or successful outcome of our representations to you, including but not limited to the completeness of a prior art search or the grant of a patent application. All of our expressions relative to your matter are limited only to estimates based upon our experience and judgment and are only our opinion. Such expressions should not be considered as representations, promises, or guarantees of results. We are not responsible for any financial loss related to development of your invention or costs associated with prior art searches or patent applications. 

If you decline to purchase the service of a prior art search on your invention and if you decline to perform a prior art search yourself or have a third party perform a prior art search on your invention, there is an increased risk that your patent application will not be granted by the USPTO. While we will file and prosecute a patent application with the USPTO at your request per the Terms of Service if no prior art search is performed for your invention, we strongly recommend that a prior art search be performed by either you, us, or a reputable third party. 

If you only purchase the service of reviewing and filing a non-provisional utility patent application and decline the additional service of prosecuting the non-provisional utility patent application, you hereby release us of any obligation to represent you in the matter of said application after the filing date of said application. We may then decline to represent you in the matter of said application if you receive office actions from the USPTO regarding said application.

Indemnification and Limitation of Liability

Each party to the Terms of Service (“Indemnifying Party”) will indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the other party and its directors, officers, employees, and agents (“Indemnified Party”) from and against any third-party claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) to the extent arising out of the Indemnifying Party’s negligence or willful misconduct, or its material breach of the Terms of Service. This indemnity does not apply to the extent a claim arises from the Indemnified Party’s own negligence, willful misconduct, or breach of the Terms of Service. These obligations will survive the termination or expiration of the Terms of Service. 

Except for each party’s indemnification obligations or damages arising from gross negligence or willful misconduct, neither party’s total liability under the Terms of Service will exceed the total professional fees paid (or payable) by you to us under the Terms of Service. In no event will either party be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Governing Law

The Terms of Service will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its choice of law principles.

Binding Agreement

The Terms of Service represent the entire agreement between the parties, and no party is relying or is entitled to rely on any representations not expressly contained herein. If any provision of the Terms of Service or the application thereof is held invalid or unenforceable, the invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect other provisions or applications of the Terms of Services, which can be given effect without such provisions or application, and, to this end, the provisions of the Terms of Service are declared to be severable. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Service will not be considered a waiver of those rights or provisions. The headings of sections contained in the Terms of Service are provided for convenience only and shall not affect the construction of the Terms of Service. The Terms of Service supersedes any prior conflicting agreements made between the parties.