DRAFT. Based on the Common Paper standard agreements, written by a committee of attorneys. In force from January 1, 2027; not before. Until then the platform runs as a beta under the Beta Program Agreement, and no agreement for services is formed.
Data Processing Agreement
Last Updated: November 1, 2026
This DPA supplements the USPatentProsecution Terms of Service accepted by Customer (the “Agreement”). It consists of this Cover Page and the Common Paper DPA Standard Terms Version 1.1, which are incorporated by reference. Customer accepts it electronically together with the Agreement. If this Cover Page and the Standard Terms conflict, this Cover Page controls.
Cover Page
| Agreement | USPatentProsecution Terms of Service (Common Paper Cloud Service Agreement, Version 2.1), as accepted by Customer. |
|---|---|
| Provider Security Contact | info@uspatentprosecution.com |
| Security Policy | The Security Policy in the Agreement, and the measures in Annex II below. |
| Governing Member State | EEA transfers: Ireland. UK transfers: England and Wales. |
Approved Subprocessors
| Subprocessor | Country | Processing task |
|---|---|---|
| Spaceship, Inc. (web hosting) | United States | Servers and backups |
| Brevo (Sendinblue SAS) | European Union (France) | Transactional email |
| Anthropic, PBC | United States | AI processing to produce Outputs (commercial terms: no training on customer data) |
| Stripe, Inc. / Stripe Payments Europe Ltd. | United States / Ireland | Payments for Provider’s invoices |
Annex I(A): List of Parties
| Data Exporter | Customer, as named in its firm account, at the address and contact person given there. Role: Controller. |
|---|---|
| Data Importer | Furrow & Quill, LLC, a New Mexico limited liability company, United States. Contact: info@uspatentprosecution.com. Role: Processor. |
Annex I(B): Description of Transfer and Processing
| Service | The Cloud Service described in the Agreement. |
|---|---|
| Categories of Data Subjects | Customer’s Users; Customer’s clients and their contacts; applicants, inventors, owners and other parties named in Customer’s matters. |
| Categories of Personal Data | Names, postal addresses, citizenship and residence (as patent forms require), email addresses and telephone numbers; content of invention disclosures, uploads, correspondence and papers; account and usage data. |
| Special Category Data | None intended. Special categories are Prohibited Data under the Agreement. |
| Frequency of Transfer | Continuous, for the term of the Agreement. |
| Nature and Purpose of Processing | Hosting, storage, AI-assisted drafting, docketing and preparing papers for U.S. patent matters, email notifications, invoicing and support, all to provide the Cloud Service to Customer. |
| Duration of Processing | For the term of the Agreement and the export period after it, then deletion as the Agreement provides. Backups expire on the hosting provider’s rotation. |
Annex I(C): Competent Supervisory Authority
The supervisory authority responsible under Clause 13 of the EEA SCCs. For UK transfers, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.
Annex II: Technical and Organizational Measures
- Encryption in transit (HTTPS), and encryption at rest of uploaded client documents, with the keys held outside the web root.
- Access is limited to the Customer’s own firm account. Practitioner accounts are verified against the USPTO’s public roster. Administrator access is logged.
- Conflict checks run on names only; invention details stay locked until the check clears.
- Daily backups by the hosting provider. Customer can export its data.
- Retention: enquiries that do not lead to an account are purged after 90 days. Matter data is kept while the account is active.
- Change control: every rule the platform applies cites its source and the date it was checked. A self-test runs on each release.
Modifications
- For transfers from Switzerland, the EEA SCCs apply with the adaptations required by the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, with the Swiss FDPIC as the competent supervisory authority.
- Notice of a new Subprocessor is given by email to the Customer’s account address or within the Product.
Common Paper Data Processing Agreement (Version 1.1) free to use under CC BY 4.0.
