Honu:

International Patent Management Software

Simplify collaboration with foreign associates and gain a new level of visibility and control over your global IP portfolio

Learn More About Honu Schedule a Consultation with Black Hills AI

Mastering Foreign IP Management With Honu

Managing foreign patent filings often comes with challenges like overflowing inboxes from foreign agents, data re-entry into docketing systems, and limited visibility on received items. These manual processes can lead to errors and missed deadlines.

Honu is built for the realities of modern IP practice. Whether you’re managing global filings from a law firm or overseeing a corporate patent portfolio, Honu by Black Hills AI gives you the structure, visibility, and peace of mind you need.

Streamline Your Foreign Prosecution Process With Honu

Replace the inefficient process of managing international filings with one specialized platform

Reduce Friction in Global Collaboration

Improve Data Quality & Reporting Standards

Optimize Your Current Workflow

Black Hills Pipeline™ Integration for Tracking & Transparency

How Honu Helps IP Professionals

Upload and manage IP correspondence in a simple, structured way that facilitates docketing and reporting

Get consistent, high-quality input from foreign associates & leave redundant data entry behind

Maintain current processes while instantly gaining clarity in existing email-based workflows

Leverage in-platform guidance to ensure complete and standardized submissions from collaborators

Case-specific queues & structured templates reduce docketing errors and keep your team aligned

Built-in verification tools to automatically confirm due dates and proper docket item entry

Ensure clear and consistent information; discrepancies are caught and corrected by highly trained docketers

Black Hills AI: The Gold Standard for AI‑Powered IP Tools & Services

Black Hills AI was founded by experienced IP attorneys to create a gold-standard suite of IP services built on proprietary automation and deep legal expertise.

This vision has evolved into a comprehensive ecosystem of solutions that span the entire IP lifecycle, including flawless automated docketing, transparent renewals, Honu, and our powerful Otto IP™ AI suite. Black Hills AI empowers legal teams to mitigate risk, optimize resources, and focus on the high-value strategic work that truly drives their practice forward.

IP Outsourcing Services by Black Hills AI

Honu FAQ

How many users can we have?

As many as you want! We recommend one account per person using it, but you can also have a number of users sharing the same account.

How many users can be using it at the same time?

As many as you want!

What if they are on the same account?

Not an issue!

Can one of our accounts see items entered from another one of our accounts?

Yes!

What happens if I make a mistake when entering an item?

Items entered through Honu still go through rigorous validation and if discrepancies are detected, they will be caught and corrected by our highly trained Docketers.

I don’t know the application number yet. What do I do?

Just enter the docketing number, you can add the application number in a later transaction.

We need emails to be able to be sent to our clients when we send these. How should we do that?

There is a place for you to specify email recipients when entering into Honu. This will send an email to any of those people. (In the near future it will also remember who it was last sent to and pre-fill that in and show that data on the matter validation page)

The application number tied to this docket number is wrong!

Just send us an email to support@blackhillsip.com. We are working on making an automated way to correct/merge/prevent duplicates but it is not ready yet.

How should European validations be submitted?

Submit validations under the docket number for the European Patent Office (EPO) matter. For example, if you are doing validations for France and Germany, you would enter the docket number for the EPO matter, select the action as Validations → France and follow the flow, the repeat for Germany.

Why is it not possible to upload a zip file?

One of the primary benefits of Honu is identifying what each attachment is. Since a zip file is a compressed folder containing multiple individual files, it prevents us from ensuring all files in that zip are properly assigned a document type. Please just unzip the file and upload the attachments individually.

Can I upload a Kofax Power PDF?

Unfortunately, we do not accept Kofax Power PDFs at this time. Since it uses a .pdf extension, it will still “upload” into the email, but it will be ureadable by the recipient.

Can I check the deadlines added to my Honu submission?

Yes, FA’s can check the deadline within the transaction info before submitting.

They can also see submitted deadlines on the Honu receipt.

What happens if I cannot see the country I am reporting on from the country drop down list?

Just send us an email to support@blackhillsip.com and include the country you wish to report on. We will then add it to your country access list.

Hear From Corporate Attorneys Who Trust Honu

“Ward Law Office has been pleased to work with the docketing and maintenance/renewal teams at Black Hills IP. Their professionalism, responsiveness, and attention to detail is excellent. We can recommend Black Hills IP for these services without reservation.”

– Jacob Ward, Founder & Attorney, Ward Patent Law

“Paying annuities was a horrible chore … there have been a number of advantages in moving to Black Hills IP Renewals. For starters, it’s been hugely helpful being able to run a cost model on both individual patents and on patent families that aid in strategic decision-making. We love utilizing custom tags by technology applicability, M&A, licenses and relevance to competition, and third-party obligations.”

– David Joyal, VP Legal, Global Supply, and Patent, Coty Inc.

“The granularity of the data on this system is astounding. It is far more user-friendly than any other annuity system. You’re going to love it.”

– Glen Belvis, Principal, Belvis Law LLC

“The power of this platform is that it provides objective roots to decision-making. You can evaluate your IP by forward citations, by how many cases were filed by that class in that year and then plan subsequent activity. Lastly, you can provide cost predictability. If I need to provide an immediate 20% budget reduction, let’s model that a couple ways on my annuity budget and give it to the business to make decisions and explain what they get for each level of spend. This tool allows you to do that and is tremendously powerful.”