Extract from the P&TS general conditions:
Patents & Technology Surveys Ltd (P&TS) will make
every effort to execute within the agreed deadline each mandate that has been
accepted, to the best of their knowledge and possibilities, in close
cooperation with the principal who will supply detailed information. P&TS
can perform searches and surveys, including prior art searches, legal status
and family searches, panoramic searches, bibliographic searches, freedom of
exploitation searches, patentability searches, etc., upon request from the
principals and upon indication by the principals of their intentions, the
antecedents of the case and all existing prior rights of third parties of which
they might be aware. P&TS can offer to provide the results of these
searches and surveys in paper form or over the internet, at the principal's
choice.
Warning regarding the scope of the searches
and surveys:
Despite all the care and attention devoted by
P&TS to each mandate, and having possible budget limitations in mind,
P&TS cannot guarantee the comprehensiveness of the results provided. In
particular, most countries publish patent applications only at least 18 months
after the filing date or in several cases, including Switzerland, only after
grant, so that there is a gap that cannot be covered. Furthermore, it is
impossible to predict applications that might be filed under a Paris Convention
priority claim of a possibly disclosed or even as yet undisclosed application.
There is also always a certain lapse of time between the publication of
documents and their inclusion in the different databases. Older documents are
sometimes not available in electronic form and are thus not found in the
databases used. Finally, some documents (e.g. advertising materials) that are
to be considered to belong to the prior art are often poorly filed and/or
classified, so that they cannot all be found and included. As regards the
choice of documents, we select those that correspond to the parameters set
according to the instructions provided by the principal. Thus, some patents
still in force may sometimes be excluded, because the technical solution
described therein is different, even if the scope of these patents could
interest the principal's future developments. Important: within the framework
of standard searches and surveys, aspects of freedom of exploitation, i.e.
whether any of the principal's products could be considered an infringement of
the disclosed patents in certain countries, are not investigated; P&TS can
of course perform such investigations upon request.
Terms of use of PROPIS:
Access to and use of PROPIS, including access
over a demo account, and of the information contained therein are subject to
the terms and conditions listed below. Please read this information carefully
as your use of PROPIS signifies your agreement to follow and be bound by these
terms and conditions.
Use of PROPIS:
You are hereby authorized to view, download,
copy and print documents contained in PROPIS under the condition that these are
to be used solely for private resp. internal purposes for a single user unless
otherwise provided in a written agreement and are not disseminated publicly
and/or commercially, that all copies must include any copyright or other
proprietary notices originally shown or included, and that no modifications are
made to the documents.
Access:
Access occurs over a secured web connection
to a database on a P&TS dedicated server available 24 hours a day,
interruptions without advance notice for maintenance purposes being reserved.
Each user is given an authorisation profile that notably determines one
supervisor who is responsible for the diffusion and control of authorisations,
for the selection of allowed categories and for the password-restricted access
further given to each individual end-user over the user supervision page. The
user is fully responsible for all activities that occur under his account and
takes the necessary precautions to prevent unauthorised access; P&TS is to
be notified immediately of any unauthorised use of the account or password.
P&TS will not be liable for any loss that the user may incur as a result of
someone else using the user's password or account; the user can however be held
liable for losses incurred by P&TS due to someone else using the user's
account or password.
Customization:
Users can introduce own comments stored in
the PROPIS database or require additional information from P&TS. Successive
comments are dated and signed (in the manner of newsletters). Posting any
unlawful, obscene, pornographic, libellous, defamatory, threatening or other
comments or material that would violate any law is prohibited.
Fees & charges:
Use of the demo version is limited in time
and as regards the available content. Subscription to the full version is
subject to the payment of fees that are composed of a yearly subscription
(covering the adaptations and maintenance of the software and of the site,
license fees and royalties paid to owners of copyrighted contents, etc.) plus
periodical search fees (for the searches and surveys performed according to
instructions, including database fees etc.).
Intellectual property:
All rights, title and interest in and
relating to PROPIS, including intellectual property for the software, database
structure and content, belong to P&TS. The trademark PROPIS has been
applied for in Switzerland, subject to extensions to other countries. Use,
reproduction, recording, publication, public exhibition or distribution of
PROPIS or parts thereof are not authorised without express prior written
consent from P&TS. All user comments, feedback, information or materials
introduced into PROPIS shall be considered the property of P&TS. All
copyrighted contents remain the property of their owners.
Duration & termination:
Access to or use of the demo version is
granted for a limited period of 1 month, unless otherwise provided. Access to
or use of the full version of PROPIS is granted for a first period of 12
months, unless otherwise provided, and is renewed tacitly for further periods
of 12 months until terminated at the end of such a term by either party upon
serving a three-month notice. P&TS reserves the right to terminate the
access of any user at its discretion, in particular users that do not observe
these terms and conditions and who infringe or otherwise violate the rights of
others. Any annotations/comments made by the end-user in PROPIS will be stored
by P&TS and retained even after termination of the contract but access
thereto is no longer possible over the web but only in paper form.
Warranties and disclaimers:
All information, contents, data, products and
services are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind including warranties
of merchant ability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. In
no event shall P&TS be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special
or consequential damages, or damages for loss of profits, revenue, data or use,
incurred by you or any third party, whether in an action in contract or tort,
arising from your access to, or use of, PROPIS. P&TS is not liable as
regards the contents imported from external sources, nor as regards the content
added by the user.
Governing law and jurisdiction:
All matters relating to your access to or use
of PROPIS shall be governed by Swiss law. The legal forum is Neuchâtel,
Switzerland.
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