- 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.