Agreed upon
Terms and Conditions
This agreement represents the complete understanding between
Patent File History and IP Document Services (hereinafter
referred to as DPS) and you, the account holder (hereinafter referred to
as ACCOUNT HOLDER),
and supersedes any other written or oral agreement. Upon
notice published online on this web site, DPS can modify or
amplify these terms and conditions, modify service prices,
as well as discontinue or change any of the services or
products offered. This will generally be for new products
and product improvements. Continued use of your account with
DPS signifies your agreement to these terms and conditions,
but, if you decide you do not agree with them, please
contact our Accounting Department at 1-202-999-0222,
so we may finalize and initiate the closure of your account.
We want satisfied customers,
and we work hard to make sure that you are.
Provision
of Services and Products
DPS
will provide services on its host computing systems to allow
ACCOUNT
HOLDER
to order patents and various patent related publications and
books in several electronic formats either for download, or
on CD or DVD, and to order and have printed books and
documents shipped to your location or a location you
specify, and to perform
various search functions and return results, all
to the best of our ability.
These services are in exchange for payment of the advertised
fees and/or product prices in compliance with the terms and
conditions of this agreement. ACCOUNT
HOLDER
is responsible for shipping and handling costs, and these
costs will be specified at the time of purchase, if at all
possible. If this is not possible, DPS will provide the
opportunity to specify that ACCOUNT HOLDER be notified when
shipping and handling costs are calculated prior to shipping
and finalizing the order.
Accuracy
of Information, Documents, Publications and Services
DPS
will strive to ensure that the documents and publications we
provide are up to date, accurate and in good condition. Most
of the information that DPS sells is derived from large
inventories purchased from the U.S. government and DPS uses
it's proprietary software to further improve the quality of
portions of these documents, but DPS will not knowingly
change the contents of these documents and publications
because we understand the legal implications of doing so.
Because of the sheer volume of data, and the fact that many
of the documents we receive from the U.S. government and
other government sources are defective upon receipt, DPS
will not be held responsible for the accuracy of the
contents of the documents or publications. For instance, if
there was a misspelling in an original patent document we
received from the U.S. government, that misspelling will
remain exactly as it was found when we received it (e.g.,
made by a patent applicant, the patent examiner,
publications author, etc.). We may, however, add the
corrected word to an electronic index so it can be found in
search systems, but we can't be sure we've found all
misspellings in such cases. We have reported, and will
continue to report problems we find with documents and
publications to the proper authorities, but we must pass
them on to the ACCOUNT
HOLDER
exactly as they come from the source provider. To do
otherwise means that we would be changing a legal document
that we do not have the authority to change. We ask that you
report problems to us, and we will pass them on to the
proper authority as necessary and confirm this to you, if
you desire. If you receive a defective document and the
original document we receive is also defective, we will
attempt to resolve this by acquiring a new copy of the
document at no additional charge to you. We ask that
you notify us of the defective document, and it will
be your choice whether you want a credit or a
replacement document.
Payment
Terms and Conditions of Non Payment
The
payment terms of ACCOUNT
HOLDER's account specify that the Net Unpaid Balance is
Due 30 days from the date of each purchase with an
additional grace period totaling the number of days from the
purchase date to the end of the purchase month. Note
that this is from the shipping date (usually also the
invoice date), and not the order date. For example, payment
for an item purchased and shipped on May 15th would be
absolutely due in our offices by June 30th. After that date,
finance charges may accrue as follows: A finance
charge of 1.5% per month on all outstanding balances
past the final due date will be added to ACCOUNT HOLDER's account as a separate
line item. These finance charges may be waived under
certain circumstances, but you usually must speak to
someone in our offices for a waiver. ACCOUNT HOLDER is only charged for the documents you
receive and any applicable shipping and handling charges,
and you can always call DPS for a credit or assistance if
there is any kind of problem with the document or our
services. We care about you and the quality of service we
provide. Unpaid accounts with balances over $100.00
U.S. past 90 days may be sent to a collection agency.
Delivery
of Electronic Results, Physical Documents and Publications
DPS
ships printed publications and documents via traceable means
(e.g., UPS) unless another method has been agreed
upon in advance. DPS will not be responsible for
delivery failure and delays in delivery caused by third
party shipping companies (which is rare). DPS also returns
documents, links to documents and search results, and DPS
will not be responsible for the speed and/or accuracy of the
"Internet" connection established for the transmission of
purchased documents or publications. We request that you
notify us if you detect reduced delivery speeds, or other
problems while using your services via the Internet and we
will do everything reasonable within our power to correct or
fix the problem, or find out where the fault exists. Because
of the nature of the Internet, DPS cannot, and shall not
guarantee that its electronic services, host computer
download facilities, or email services will be available
100% of the time, but we do assure you that we will strive
for 100% availability for times other than during our normal
weekly maintenance window. This window is once each week on
Sunday afternoon from 2:00 PM through 9:00 PM Eastern Time.
And even during this window, services may still be
available.
Licensing
and Use of Purchased Documents and Publications
US
Patent documents are public domain by their very nature, and
you are welcome to keep them, redistribute or even sell
them, if you so desire. Be aware that DPS will not be responsible
for the contents and accuracy of any of these documents,
even if we have enhanced them by removing noise, deskewing
(straightening) crooked scanned documents, improving
readability, etc. Quite often we receive damaged documents
from the various patent authorities and it is not possible
to examine every page of every document we receive (we add
over 20,000 new publications to our inventories each week).
The books in our Government Publications Series are
assigned ISBN numbers and they may have certain enhancements
or editorial additions that are copyrighted, such
as an added table of contents or an index where none existed
in the original government published version, therefore, you
must get our permission in writing to make copies of these
publications.
Passwords
and Confidential Account Information
You are expected to keep your
provided password or PIN (Personal Identification Number)
confidential. If you suspect your password or PIN
has been compromised, you should request a new one as soon
as possible, and you shall advise us if you suspect
purchases were made by someone other than yourself using
your user ID and PIN or password. We record certain pieces
of technical information on purchases and logons such as the
Internet Protocol (IP) address and the terminal type that
were used for the transaction. We can possibly tell if your
account has been compromised if you advise us that purchases
were made by someone other than you. If
this happens, we will be happy to fully credit your
account and assign you new logon credentials. We
may even be able to tell who it was, or at least where it
originated (city, state, country, or even the street
address), but we can not guarantee this. Either way, will
cooperate with authorities to prosecute those that
perpetrated the theft using your identification. Our credit
card purchases are fully encrypted for security, but general
download of data products are not in order to achieve
maximum processing and download speed. However, if you
require a secure, encrypted channel for downloads, please
calls us and we will arrange it.
Construction
and Lawful Execution
By sending (submitting) this New Account Request, you agree
that you have the authority within your firm or company
under the laws of your country to execute such documents and
agreements, or if the account is for you personally, that
you are at least 18 years of age and a legal resident and
citizen of the United States of America. This Agreement
shall be deemed to have been entered into in the Commonwealth of Virginia and shall be interpreted and construed
in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia applicable to such agreements executed
and to be fully performed therein. Each party hereby
agrees to submit to the exclusive in personam jurisdiction
of the courts of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the
resolution of all disputes between them, or, if
jurisdictional prerequisites exist at the time, to the sole
and exclusive in personam jurisdiction of the Federal Courts
in Virginia with venue to be in the Northern District of
Alexandria in Fairfax County.
Copyright 2013
Digital Patent Services - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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