Legal startup tackles the hidden risk of shifting contract terms – News

Terms of service, the legal documents accompanying intellectual property licenses that less than 10% of us ever read, are important to many businesses. That was evident early this year, when the digital design platform maker Canva Pty. Ltd. updated its license terms to prohibit users from commercializing certain materials containing third-party content.

“That could impact packaging, so products on the shelf have to be recalled,” said Noah Ornstein, an attorney and chief xecutive officer of Jayaram Law Inc. and its Take Care subsidiary. “It could impact end caps, promotions, social posts and create a need to re-educate marketing teams so they don’t violate the relationship with Canva in the future.”

Such revisions to contract language aren’t always obvious to the lay observer, if they’re aware of them at all. Frequently, they’re couched in legalese that requires expertise to unravel. Take Care wants to lighten that burden.

The startup has launched a subscription service that monitors contracts, policies, and digital agreements around the clock, alerting customers when any changes occur. The company calls the model, which combines automated monitoring with human review, “attorney-assisted intelligence.”

Launched in limited release last February, Take Care is now being rolled out more widely to enterprise customers across industries, including fashion, consumer goods, finance, healthcare and technology.

Shifting terms

The platform was created to address what its founders describe as a growing and underappreciated risk: contracts that change after they are signed. Ornstein said internal data shows that roughly one-third of a typical customer’s software portfolio experiences at least one contractual or policy change every 30 days. They range from updates to privacy terms to new restrictions on the use of content.

Companies often miss these updates because agreements are scattered across departments, stored in multiple systems or controlled by vendors who may issue new terms with scant notification. Even when changes are communicated clearly, the language used to describe them may be too complex for the average businessperson to understand.

The result, Ornstein said, is growing business risk with implications for data protection, intellectual property, marketing, regulatory compliance and finance. “These missed obligations and quiet changes can have a huge impact,” he said.

TakingCare.ai monitors contractual materials around the clock and alerts subscribers to changes as they occur. The system supports many major software contracts out of the box, and customers can also upload private or negotiated agreements. It monitors most common forms of contractual relationships, including terms of service, privacy policies, usage guidelines and definitional documents.

When a change is detected, Take Care generates a plain-English legal analysis. Human lawyers work behind the scenes to validate the findings before they’re published to customers.

‘Nearly impossible to track’

“What you see on screen is an actual attorney legal service,” Ornstein said. “The legal language behind it may be paragraphs of information.” Some software contracts cover more than 15 different sets of terms. “It’s nearly impossible to track all of this.”

The platform allows customers to annotate agreements, track obligations, communicate with internal stakeholders and bring in external legal assistance when needed. It doesn’t dispense legal advice, but routes follow-up queries to law firms, creating what Ornstein said are new revenue opportunities for attorneys.

“Lawyers’ revenues continue to feel increasing pressure from new technology and alternative service models,” he said. “We set out to develop these products that would serve legal needs that lawyers couldn’t otherwise serve while still involving the lawyers.”

While the current version of the platform is weighted toward software-as-a-service agreements, Ornstein said the company intends to be industry-agnostic. It’s currently tracking agreements with a few major retailers as well as franchise contracts, real estate development terms and mortgage-related documents.

“It’s really what is important to the subscriber,” Ornstein said.

Consumer version planned

Initial customers are mid-sized and large enterprises, though Ornstein said Take Care plans to offer a version for consumer use. He wouldn’t disclose the artificial intelligence models it uses but said the system combines several third-party and proprietary engines. “This isn’t just [a large language model] play,” Ornstein said. “We’ve been developing this for quite some time. It’s best in class technology from automation to robotics to various types of AI fit for purpose.”

Take Care offers its service under a single software-as-a-service price to keep onboarding simple. Customers enter into both a technology relationship and a legal-service relationship, with payments split accordingly. The company has been internally funded so far, though its corporate entity is structured to support outside investment or strategic partnerships in the future.

As corporate reliance on cloud software grows and contractual complexity multiplies, Ornstein said companies can no longer assume their agreements remain static after signing.  “Every contract matters and every change or missed obligation can have a material ripple effect,” he said, “so we all have to take care.”

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