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Terms of Service

Last updated: 7 October 2026

The Service is operated by Invention Village Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15988870), registered office C/O Azd Accountants Ltd, St James Tower, 7 Charlotte Street, Manchester M1 4DZ, United Kingdom (“we”, “us”).

These Terms of Service govern your use of thesmartpatent.com and the Invention Village apps (the “Service”). By creating an account or using the Service you agree to these terms. If you use the Service for a business, you confirm you are authorised to accept these terms on its behalf.

1. What the Service is

The Service provides AI-assisted tools for patent research, freedom-to-operate screening, design-around ideas, patent drafting and translation. Results are produced by AI models from what you submit and from public patent data.

Results are drafts and screening signals, not legal advice. They can be incomplete or wrong, and they do not replace a registered patent attorney or lawyer. Nothing on the Service guarantees that a patent will be granted, that a product is free to operate, or that a design-around avoids infringement. Have a qualified professional review a result before you rely on it for a filing, a product launch or any other important decision.

The software files nothing. Running a tool never submits anything to a patent office. Filing and representation require a separate written engagement that names who will act, what they will do and the fees.

2. Your account

You must be at least 18 to create an account. Give us accurate information and keep your login details secure. An account can be signed in on one device at a time; signing in elsewhere ends the earlier session. You are responsible for activity under your account.

3. Acceptable use

Only submit material you have the right to use. Keeping confidential or export-controlled material within the rules that apply to it is your responsibility, including any security clearance or foreign-filing licence required before an application is filed abroad.

A patent application must describe a genuine invention. You must not use the Service to invent experimental data, test results, technical effects or measured values; to produce many near-identical applications; or to prepare applications that do not reflect real research and development. You are responsible for the truth of everything you file.

You must not use the Service to break the law; try to get around usage limits, free-use limits or billing; access the Service by automated means other than the interfaces we provide for that purpose; copy, resell or reverse-engineer the Service; or interfere with its security or with other users.

4. Credits, payment and refunds

Paid features are charged in credits. The price is shown before you buy credits and before a paid run starts. Card payments are processed by Stripe. We are not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our prices.

Purchased credits do not expire. If a paid run fails, its credits are returned to your account automatically. Where a feature has its own rule about partial results, that rule is shown on the pricing page or next to the feature. Credits included in a subscription follow the rules shown on the pricing page.

If you change your mind within 14 days of a purchase and none of the credits from that purchase have been used, we will refund that purchase in full. Email [email protected] to ask. This does not affect your statutory rights as a consumer.

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until you cancel. You can cancel at any time; the cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period.

5. Your content and your results

You keep all rights in what you submit. You allow us to process it only as needed to provide the Service to you, including sending it to the AI service providers listed in our Privacy Policy. We do not use your content to train AI models.

You may use the results generated for you for any lawful purpose. Because results are generated by AI, similar results may be produced for other users, and we do not guarantee that a result is original or free of third-party rights.

How we handle personal data is set out in our Privacy Policy.

6. Availability and changes to the Service

We work to keep the Service available but do not promise that it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may change, add or remove features. Free features have usage limits, which we may adjust to prevent abuse. If we stop offering a paid feature, credits you hold remain usable for other features.

7. Our responsibility to you

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

If you are a consumer, we are responsible for loss you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable, or for business losses, because we provide the Service to consumers for private use. These terms do not affect your legal rights as a consumer.

If you use the Service for a business, we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, data or opportunity, or for decisions you make based on results from the Service, and our total liability to you is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

8. Ending your use of the Service

You can stop using the Service at any time and ask us to delete your account by emailing [email protected]. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, in particular section 3. If we close your account without such a reason, we will refund your unused purchased credits.

9. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change materially affects you, we will tell you by email or on the Service before it takes effect. If you keep using the Service after that, the updated terms apply.

10. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your local courts.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected].