|
IP
Claim Service
Terms
Of Use
THIS
IS A LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENT BETWEEN TUCOWS, INC. (REGISTRAR)
AND YOU, THE OWNER OF A REGISTERED OR COMMON LAW TRADEMARK
OR SERVICE MARK (OWNER) OR THE DULY AUTHORIZED AGENT OF AN
OWNER (AGENT) (COLLECTIVELY, YOU).THESE TERMS OF USE ARE THE
COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE TERMS OF USE REGARDING
USE OF THE REGISTRAR’S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CLAIM SERVICE
(THE SERVICE).
BY
SELECTING AGREE, BY USING THE SERVICE OR BY SIGNIFYING ACCEPTANCE
IN ANY OTHER WAY, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF
USE.IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THESE TERMS OF USE, YOU
ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO USE THE SERVICE AND YOU MUST DISCONTINUE
ANY FURTHER USE.
- The
Service. Registrarprovides the Service to holders
of both registered and common law trademarks or service
marks (collectively Trademarks).During the domain name application
process, applicants for a .biz domain name (Applicants)
will be notified of an Owner’s alleged intellectual property
rights in a Trademark if the domain name contained in the
domain name application is an exact match of the Trademark
identified in an IP Claim (as defined below) submitted by
Owner.You may review frequently asked questions regarding
the Service by reviewing our FAQs.
- Registration,
Password and Security.You must provide accurate,
complete and current registration information and must update
this information promptly if it changes.
You
represent and warrant that You are at least eighteen (18)
years of age or older and are either an Owner or an Agent
duly authorized to represent an Owner(s) in connection
with the Service and submitting an IP Claim on behalf
of an Owner(s).Agent will indemnify and hold harmless
Registrar and its officers, directors, employees, agents,
affiliates and subcontractors for any claims brought by
Owner or Third Parties relating to the use of the Service.
- License
to Use Data / Privacy. By submitting an IP Claim,
You hereby grant Registrar, as well as any of its agents
or subcontractors, a limited, royalty-free, non-exclusive
worldwide license to use all of the data contained in the
IP Claim solely for the purposes of implementing the Service,
processing Your IP Claim, notifying Applicants of Your IP
Claim, and for notifying You of changes to the Service,
for archival purposes.
- The
IP Claim Process. In order to submit a claim with
respect to a Trademark or Trademarks (IP Claim) through
the Service, You must complete an IP Claim form for each
Trademark.For each IP Claim, You must submit complete contact
information, representative contact information and notification
details, and the details regarding the Trademark.You may
specify in the representative field that an Agent may receive
legal correspondence regarding the IP Claim.Once You have
submitted an IP Claim, you will receive a confirmation email
and a claim number.You must retain the claim number for
each IP Claim You submit.
Registrar
will accept IP Claims until July 9, 2001, or such later
date as it may determine in its sole discretion (Close
of Phase I) and no IP Claims will be accepted after that
date.
From
the Close of Phase I until September 25, 2001 (Phase 2),
or such other later date as Registrar may choose, in its
sole discretion, the domain name applications from ICANN-approved
registrars (Applications) will be compared with the database
of IP Claims processed through the Service (IP Claim Database).For
each exact match between an IP Claim in the IP Claim Database
and a domain name application, the Registry Operator for
.Biz (Registry Operator) will notify the Applicant that
a third party or third parties have submitted an IP Claim
for the exact Trademark.The email notification to the
Applicant will include, among other things, the information
provided by Owner in the IP Claim, instructions on how
to proceed with the registration process, and that if
selected during the randomized name selection phase (Name
Selection Phase), the domain name will be placed on a
temporary thirty (30) day hold when the Registry goes
live.The Applicant will have the option to proceed with
the Application or cancel the Application.If the Applicant
does not respond to the email notification, or elects
to cancel the Application, the Applicant’s domain name
application will not be processed during the Name
Selection Phase.If the Applicant chooses to proceed with
the registration process and the name is selected during
the Name Selection Phase, that domain name automatically
will be placed on a thirty (30) day hold period when the
name is registered.
After
Name Selection, the Owner will be notified by Registry
Operator if an Applicant has successfully registered the
domain name.The Owner will then have the option of contacting
the Applicant and finding a solution or using the guidelines
set forth by a special dispute resolution process called
the Start-up Trademark Opposition Policy (STOP)(formerly
referred to as the Start-up Dispute Resolution Policy
or SUDRP) (information available at http://www.neulevel.com/countdown/stop.html,
or the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Procedures
(UDRP) (information is available at http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm).
You
will not be notified if there are no Applications that
exactly match an IP Claim You submitted in the IP Claim
Database.
USE
OF THE SERVICE DOES NOT GUARANTEE THAT AN OWNER WILL BE
AWARDED THE .BIZ EXTENSION FOR ITS TRADEMARK.AN OWNER
THAT WISHES TO OBTAIN A .BIZ EXTENSION FOR ITS TRADEMARK
MUST FILE A DOMAIN NAME APPLICATION.
DOMAIN
NAME APPLICANTS WILL ONLY BE NOTIFIED OF APPLICATIONS
THAT ARE EXACT MATCHES WITH A TRADEMARK IDENTIFIED IN
AN IP CLAIM FORM.REGISTRAR WILL NOT VERIFY WHETHER A TRADEMARK
CLAIMED ON AN IP CLAIM FORM CORRESPONDS WITH AN ACTUAL,
LEGAL OR VALID TRADEMARK, NOR WILL REGISTRAR PROVIDE ANY
LEGAL OVERSIGHT OR ADJUDICATION FOR ANY DISPUTED INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY IMPLICATED BY THE SERVICE.
- Conduct.
You may access and use the Service for lawful purposes only
and you are solely responsible for the knowledge and adherence
to any and all laws, statutes, rules and regulations pertaining
to Your use of the Service.You agree that You will not (i)use
the Service to commit a criminal offence or to encourage
conduct that would constitute a criminal offence or give
rise to a civil liability, or otherwise violate any local
state, Federal or international law or regulation; (ii)upload
or otherwise transmit any content that You do not have a
right to transmit under any law or contractual or fiduciary
duty; (iii)interfere or infringe with any trademark or proprietary
rights of any other party; (iv)interfere with the ability
of other users to access or use the Service; (v)claim a
relationship with or to speak for any individual, business,
association, institution or other organization for which
You are not authorized to claim such a relationship; (vi)interfere
with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected
to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures,
policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;
or (vii)reproduce, duplicate, copy, use, distribute, sell,
resell or otherwise exploit for any commercial purposes
any portion of the Service.
- Fees.
As consideration for the Service, You agree to pay Registrar,
or its agents or subcontractors, as the case may be, an
IP Claim fee for each IP Claim submitted through the Service
by credit card through its online payment system.Such fee
shall be due immediately and is non-refundable.Registrar,
or its agents or subcontractors, may take all remedies to
collect fees owed.Registrar, or its agents or subcontractors
may require you to submit and pay for each IP Claim individually
or it may allow you store up a certain number of IP Claims
before submitting them for processing.Once you have stored
that number of IP Claims, you may not be able to store any
additional IP Claims and may need to submit them for processing
and pay the applicable fee before obtaining additional storage
space.No refunds are permitted.
- Agents.
You agree that, if Your agent (e.g., an attorney,
employee, etc.) submits an IP Claim on Your behalf, You
are nonetheless bound as a principal by all Terms of Use
herein. Your continued use of the Services shall ratify
any unauthorized actions of Your agent. By acting on Your
behalf, Your agent certifies that he or she is authorized
to use the Service on Your behalf, that he or she is authorized
to bind You to these Terms of Use and that he or she has
apprised You of these Terms of Use of this Agreement.In
addition, You are responsible for any errors made by Your
agent.Registrar will not refund fees paid by You or Your
agent on Your behalf for any reason, including, but not
limited to, in the event that Your agent fails to comply
with these Terms of Use, Your agent incorrectly provides
information in the IP Claim process or if Your agent changes
or otherwise modifies Your IP Claim incorrectly.
- Copyright.
You acknowledge that the Service, any underlying
technology used in connection with the Service, and all
software, material, information, communications, text, graphics,
links, electronic art, animations, audio, video, photos,
and other data (collectively, the Content) available within
the Service are provided by Registrar or third-party providers
and are the copyrighted works of Registrar and/or such third
parties.Except as expressly authorized by Registrar or such
third parties in these Terms of Use or as may be posted
on the Service, You may not copy, reproduce, publish, distribute,
modify, create derivative works of, rent, lease, sell, transfer,
display, transmit, compile or collect in a database, or
in any manner commercially exploit any part of the Content
or the Service, in whole or in part.You may not store any
significant portion of any Content or the Service owned
by, or licensed to Registrar in any form, whether archival
files, computer-readable files, or any other medium.You
also may not mirror any Content or the Service on any other
server.
Registrar
encourages you to download and print a reasonable number
of copies of an IP Claim for non-commercial, internal
use only; provided that (i)any permitted copies contain,
in unmodified form, any copyright or other proprietary
rights notices and an original source attribution to the
Service; and (ii)no modifications are made except as may
be expressly provided by Registrar.
- Links.
Some links on the Service lead to sites posted by independent
site owners.Because Registrar has no control over these
sites, it cannot be responsible for such sites’ accessibility
via the Internet and does not endorse products, services,
or information provided by such sites.As such, Registrar
shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly,
for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by
or in connection with, use or reliance on any content, goods
or services available on or through any other site.Further,
the inclusion of these links does not imply that the other
sites have given permission for inclusion of these links,
or that there is any relationship between Registrar and
the linked sites.
- Disclaimer
of Warranty, Limitation of Liability. YOU AGREE
THAT YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR OWN
RISK.NEITHER REGISTRAR NOR ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, SHAREHOLDERS,
MEMBERS, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, AGENTS
OR SUBCONTRACTORS WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED
OR ERROR-FREE; NOR DO THEY MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO THE RESULTS
THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE OR AS TO
THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR CONTENT WITHIN THE SERVICE.
THE
SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN AS IS, AS AVAILABLE BASIS WITHOUT
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSES
AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
IN
NO EVENT WILL REGISTRAR NOR ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES,
SHAREHOLDERS, MEMBERS, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES,
AFFILIATES, AGENTS OR SUBCONTRACTORS BE LIABLE TO YOU
OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL
OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY
OF SUCH DAMAGES), ARISING OUT YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY
TO ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION,
LOSS OF REVENUE OR ANTICIPATED PROFITS, LOSS OF GOODWILL,
LOST BUSINESS, LOST DATA, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION,
OR ANY AND ALL OTHER DAMAGES OR LOSSES THAT RESULT FROM
MISTAKES, INACCURATELY ENTERED DATA, UNAUTHORIZED USE,
OMISSIONS, INTERRUPTIONS, ERRORS, DEFECTS, DELAYS IN OPERATION,
OR ANY FAILURE OF PERFORMANCE, WHETHER OR NOT LIMITED
TO ACTS OF GOD, COMMUNICATIONS FAILURE, THEFT, DESTRUCTION
OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO INSTITUTIONS RECORDS, PROGRAMS
OR SERVICES.YOU AGREE THAT THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS OF
LIABILITY REPRESENT A REASONABLE ALLOCATION OF RISK.
IN
NO EVENT, SHALL REGISTRAR BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY AMOUNT
EXCEEDING THE AMOUNT OF FEES PAID BY YOU FOR THE APPLICABLE
IP CLAIM.
- Indemnification.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Registrar and its
parents, subsidiaries, shareholders, members, officers,
directors, employees, affiliates, agents and subcontractors
from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorney’s
fees made by any third party due to or arising out of Your
use of the Service, your breach of these Terms of Use, any
Content submitted to the Service, or any disputes involving
the intellectual property rights of the Trademarks.
- Modifications
to the Service. Registrar reserves the right at
any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue,
temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof)
with or without notice.You agree that Registrar will not
be liable to You or to any third party for any modification,
suspension, or discontinuation of the Services.
- Termination.
You may discontinue Your participation in and access to
the Service at any time.These Terms of Use will continue
to apply to all past use of the Service by You, even if
You are no longer using the Service.You acknowledge and
agree that Registrar may terminate or block Your use of
all or part of the Service without prior notice for any
reason, including, without limitation, if Registrar believes
You have engaged in conduct prohibited by these Terms of
Use.You agree that upon termination or discontinuance for
any reason, may delete all information related to You on
the Service and may bar Your access to and use of the Service.
- Governing
Law. These Terms of Use shall be governed by and
construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of
Ontario, without regard to its principles of conflicts of
law.
- Changes
to the Terms of Use. Registrar reserves the right
to modify the Terms of Use at any time and from time to
time.Any modifications shall be effective upon the posting
of the modified Terms of Use at http://ipclaims.neulevel.com/legal/conditions.php.You
agree to review these Terms of Use periodically so that
You are aware of any modifications.Your continued use of
the Service shall be deemed Your acceptance of the modified
Terms of Use.
- Severability.
In the event that any provision of these Terms of Use shall
be unenforceable or invalid under any applicable law or
be so held by applicable court decision, such unenforceability
or invalidity shall not render this Agreement unenforceable
or invalid as a whole, and, in such event, such provision
shall be changed and interpreted so as to best accomplish
the objectives of such provision within the limits of applicable
law or applicable court decision.
- Third
Party Beneficiary. Registry Operator (NeuLevel)
is an intended third party beneficiary of these Term and
Conditions with rights to enforce these Terms of Use.You
will cooperate in good faith with NeuLevel or Registrar
in investigating instances of non-compliance with these
Terms of Use, if NeuLevel or Registrar believes in good
faith that you are not in compliance with these Terms of
Use.
- Subcontractors.
In the course of providing the IP Claim Service, Registrar
may retain independent contractors or assign or subcontract
to or otherwise have any third party perform any or all
of the IP Claim Service at any time, provided that Registrar
shall continue to remain responsible for full performance
of any such duties to the same extent as if it had performed
the IP Claim Service itself.
- Entire
Agreement. These Terms of Use completely and exclusively
state the agreement of the parties regarding the subject
matter, and supersede all prior agreements and understandings,
whether written or oral, with respect to the subject matter
of these Terms of Use.
- Modifications
to your Account. In order to change any of your
account information with Registrar, you must use the Account
Identifier and Password selected when you opened your account
with Registrar.You agree to safeguard your Account Identifier
and Password from any unauthorized use.In no event shall
Registrar be liable for the unauthorized use or misuse of
your Account Identifier or Password.
- Breach.
You agree that failure to abide by an provision of this
Agreement, any operating rule or policy or the Dispute Policy
provided by Registrar, may be considered by Registrar to
be a material breach and that Registrar may provide a written
notice, describing the breach, to you.If within thirty (30)
calendar days of the date of such notice, you fail to provide
evidence, which is reasonably satisfactory to Registrar,
that you have not breached your obligations under the Agreement,
then Registrar may delete the registration or reservation
of your domain name.Any such breach by you shall not be
deemed to be excused simply because Registrar did not act
earlier in response to that, or any other breach by you.
- No
Guarantee. You acknowledge that reservation of your
IP Claim name does not confer immunity from objection to
either the registration, reservation, or use of the domain
name.
- Right
of Refusal. Registrar, in its sole discretion, reserves
the right to refuse to register or reserve your IP Claim
name or register you for other services.You agree that Registrar
shall not be liable to you for loss or damages that may
result from its refusal to register, reserve or delete your
IP Claim. Registrar reserves the right to delete or transfer
your IP Claim within a thirty (30) day period following
receipt of the application if it believes the IP Claim has
been made possible by a mistake, made either by Registrar
or by a third party
|