TERMS & CONDITIONS

Our qualified staff is on behalf of our firm is responsibility to carry out professional work with all reasonable skill and care.

Your relationship is solely with the firm and the firm has sole legal liability for any act or omission in the course of the work done for you. No partner, consultant or employee of the firm shall have any personal liability (whether in contract, tort or negligence) for that work, and the fact that such persons sign any letter or document in their own name in the course of that work does not mean that they are assuming any personal legal liability. You agree that you will not bring any claim (whether in contract, tort, negligence or otherwise) against any partner, consultant or employee of the firm in relation to that work, and those persons will have the right to rely on this provision insofar as it limits or excludes their liability. This does not affect the liability of the firm itself for the work done by those persons.

We are not liable for losses that result from something you do or fail to do (such as giving us incorrect information, or not giving us information at the time we ask for it).

If we are prevented by circumstances beyond our reasonable control from providing the services we have undertaken to perform for you, we will promptly notify you of those circumstances. If, as a result of those circumstances, we are unable to meet any deadline or complete the services by any estimated date of completion or at all, any such failure on our part will not constitute a breach of these Terms of Business, and we will not be otherwise liable to you for any such failure to the extent that it is attributable to those circumstances. Any estimated date for completion of the services will be extended accordingly.

Nothing in these Terms of Business shall limit or exclude our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence (or that of our partners, employees or consultants), for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by applicable law.

Unless you notify us otherwise in writing, we shall be entitled to assume that any person within your organization who instructs us has authority to do so on your behalf, and to rely on information provided by those persons.

We shall assume, unless otherwise instructed in writing, that our client is the legal entity providing us with the initial instructions in relation to a matter (whether that is an organisation, or an individual instructing us in a personal capacity). Our liability, and our duty of care, shall be solely to that entity as our client unless we agree otherwise in writing. If you wish us to render invoices to and accept payment from another entity (for example, another company in the same group), we shall be pleased to do this, but responsibility for ensuring that payment is made remains with you

We rely on our clients to give us timely, complete and accurate information and instructions. We do not accept responsibility for non-receipt or late receipt of communications. We prefer, where possible, to have oral instructions confirmed in writing in order to avoid any possible misunderstandings. If you cannot avoid giving us oral rather than written instructions, we shall normally confirm in writing the instructions we have received, as we understand them.

Patent and Trade Mark Offices often impose time limits and failure to meet these limits can be fatal to the rights concerned. Whilst it is our responsibility to inform you of any relevant time limits, we cannot accept any responsibility if you fail to provide us with instructions that are sufficiently clear, complete or timely to allow us to act within such official time limits. Although we will inform you of the time limits to be met and of any actions or instructions that are required, we do not undertake to send further reminders, incur costs on your behalf, or take any other action in the absence of instructions to do so. In this situation, your rights may be lost irrevocably.

While we continue to act for you, we will pass on to you any relevant communications received by us from any Patent or Trade Mark Offices or other parties (for example, notices of office actions). Please be aware that in this case, we will make or may make a reasonable charge for passing on such communications, whether or not you subsequently instruct us to take any actions in respect of those communications. In all such cases, it remains your responsibility to instruct us as to what actions you wish us to take in response to such communications.

If we receive late instructions we may not be able to implement them in time to maintain your rights, in which case your rights may be lost irrevocably. In the event of late instructions or late payments to us, urgency charges may be incurred which we shall pass on to you.

Unless you indicate that you would prefer a particular form of communication, we shall use whatever mode of communication (including e-mail) that appears appropriate in the circumstances.

All e-mail communication is potentially vulnerable to interception by third parties. We cannot accept responsibility for any corruption of information we communicate to you, or its disclosure to other parties, as a result of the interception of e-mail communications. If you receive any e-mail or attachment appearing to be from us with details about where to send monies (e.g. with bank account details), we recommend that you first confirm its authenticity with us by phone (using a previously established phone number and not one taken from that e-mail itself).

We shall be responsible for carrying out regular virus checks and maintaining firewalls in our internal systems; however, we advise you also to carry out your own virus checks on any communications (whether in the form of computer disk, e-mail, Internet or otherwise). To the extent that we have fulfilled our obligation above, we do not accept responsibility (including in negligence) for any viruses that may enter your system or data by these or any other means. Furthermore, while we observe reasonable precautions, we do not guarantee the security of our IT systems.

It is important that you inform us promptly of any change in relation to: (a) your name, address, telephone/fax numbers and e-mail address; and any change of ownership of your patent or other rights with which we are concerned. Many such changes have to be officially registered and rights may be lost if such changes are not registered in due time. We do not accept responsibility for any loss of rights as a consequence of your failure to inform us of such changes.

In order to provide you with the best service, we may provide some services from another office of Anuation Research & Consulting LLP whose staff may be employed by the associated entity. Our responsibility to you will not be affected and our Professional Indemnity cover will continue to apply. During our work for you we may need to instruct, liaise with or co-ordinate advice from third parties (such as foreign lawyers, patent attorneys or representatives) to act on your behalf. Such third-party advisors are not part of Anuation Research & Consulting LLP, and we shall not be liable for any default or negligence on their part. You will be responsible for the fees and expenses of third parties instructed on your behalf: you may choose to pay the third party directly or, where we agree to pay the third party on your behalf, you agree to reimburse us for (and, where requested, provide us with monies on account of) such third-party costs. You may inform us which third parties you wish us to instruct to act on your behalf. If you do not inform us which third parties to instruct, we shall endeavour to select third parties we regard as appropriate and suitable to the relevant instruction. In some cases, you may be required to sign a power of attorney or other authorisation in connection with such third-party instructions: rights may be lost as a result of delays to such authorisations, and it is your responsibility to complete such authorisations as required.

Granted patents and registered designs and trademarks, and in some countries pending applications, need to be maintained by the payment of regular (usually annual) renewal fees (also called maintenance fees or annuities). Important intellectual property rights can be lost if these fees are not paid, and if there is no reliable system in place for paying them. You may choose to pay such fees yourself or you may select any commercial renewal organization to do so for you.

Our charges are principally based on the amount of our professional time spent on a matter, although other factors may also be taken into account. Such factors may include the size and complexity of the matter and the degree of urgency involved. Fixed charges may apply in relation to specific tasks (such as the actual filing of a patent application at a patent office). Our hourly rates are primarily based on the seniority and experience of the professional staff involved. These rates are reviewed periodically. Our charges are calculated at the rates which are current when the work is carried out.

You will be responsible for any expense we incur on your behalf, including, for example, Patent Office fees, Counsel’s fees, Court fees, the costs of any experts or other agents (including any translators or foreign attorneys or representatives) engaged on your behalf, photocopying costs, courier charges, travel and meeting expenses and telephone and fax charges. If requested, we will provide an estimate in advance of the likely level of such costs or, if applicable, the basis on which they will be charged. When invoicing you for costs or disbursements incurred on your behalf we reserve the right to add an additional amount to cover bank charges or foreign exchange risks: it may be possible, in such cases, for you to avoid certain costs by choosing to pay the relevant third party directly, and you should let us know if you wish to do so. Official fees and charges and the fees and costs of third parties may be changed without notice (and, in the case of foreign matters, may vary with exchange rate fluctuations): such changes are outside our control, and you are responsible for the payment of such fees and charged as invoiced.

We may require payment on account, particularly in respect of large items such as charges and expenses to be incurred in foreign filings and actions. Where we make such a request, we may refrain from starting, or cease to carry out the work to which such payment relates until the requested payment has cleared into our bank account, so time should be allowed for this in advance of any deadline by which work has to be completed. In such cases, we are not liable to you for losses resulting from such delay or suspension to our work

All fees and expenses are exclusive of any value-added or similar sales taxes (“such as GST”), which where applicable will be added to our invoice at the prevailing rate. We may also re-issue our invoice to credit any amounts of taxes wrongly charged.

You must settle our invoices in full within the period indicated on our invoices. If any invoice (or part invoice) remains unpaid after the due date for payment, we reserve the right to charge interest on any amount which remains outstanding at the rate applicable to judgment debts until payment is made.

If you do not make a payment on account when requested or if an invoice remains unpaid beyond the applicable payment period, we reserve the right to suspend all work on your behalf. This is without prejudice to our right to invoice for work undertaken before such suspension or to take legal action for the payment of our costs. Where we take legal action to recover our fees, you agree to reimburse us for our legal costs (including solicitors’ and/or counsel’s fees, court fees and disbursements) on an indemnity basis if judgment is given in our favor. You will be responsible for the consequences of the suspension of work, which may include the irrevocable loss of, or failure to obtain, rights.

Our files remain our property at all times. If you wish to transfer your work to other professional advisors, we shall copy such of the files relating to your work as you request (at your expense) and release the copy file(s) when all our charges have been paid.

We own the copyright in any work we create and this copyright will not be transferred to you although you have our license to use our work for the purposes for which it was created. We have the right to be identified as the author of the work and to object to any misuse of it.

It is our normal practice to retain our correspondence files, draft documents and other papers for a minimum of six years after a file is closed. After that time, we reserve the right to destroy or not destroy such papers. Unless you tell us otherwise, we shall assume that you are content with this arrangement.

We are required by law to keep the affairs for our clients and our former clients confidential, unless disclosure is required by law, or requested by you as client or former client. Accordingly, we will keep confidential any information (which may also be covered by legal privilege) that we acquire about your business and affairs.

If you or we engage other professional advisers to assist with your matter we will assume, unless you notify us otherwise, that we may disclose relevant information, advice, reports or opinions to such other advisers as necessary.

We may also disclose such privileged and/or confidential information and any advice, report or opinion given by us to you or any third party in connection with your affairs to: our auditors, external assessors, insurers or other advisers

We may be required, by law or other regulatory authority to which we are subject, to disclose such privileged and/or confidential information and any advice, report or opinion given by us to you or any third party in connection with your affairs.

In certain circumstances, it may be necessary to erect an information barrier to protect the confidentiality of client information; if this is needed we will discuss it with you.

Where possible, we will disclose to you all information that is material to your affairs and business regardless of the source of that information. However, we will not disclose to you any confidential information about the business and affairs of any other existing or former client, or any information in respect of which we owe a duty of confidentiality to a third party.

We are a data controller in respect of your personal data processed by us in the course of providing services to you. We will process such personal data in accordance with applicable data protection law and as set out in our own privacy policy.

We may wish to name you as our client on our website or in professional directories and similar publications. Please let us know in writing if you are not content for us to do so. Any such publicity would not include any of your confidential information (except for your identity and the fact that we act for you) unless you agree otherwise.

Any searches you request may be carried out by our partners or staff or by government Patent Offices or by independent specialist searching firms. We are not liable for the accuracy of any search which has been carried out by a third party. Due to the limitations of, and occasional errors in, classifications, indices, computer databases and official records, no search can be guaranteed comprehensive or accurate (this includes the searches carried by our staff). We shall endeavor to point out any particular limitations of searches made when reporting their results.

We cannot act simultaneously for two clients whose interests are in the same or very close technical fields, unless (exceptionally) both clients consent to such an arrangement, nor can we act for two clients who have a direct conflict of interest. When considering taking on a new client, we try to identify conflicts of interest that may preclude us from acting. It is helpful if potential new clients identify to us any firms or companies for whom they believe we will be unable to act without a conflict of interest arising.

Sometimes, conflicts arise later because, for example, our clients acquire new companies or diversify into new areas of business. In such circumstances, we reserve the right to decline to act further, at least in relation to the area of conflict, for one of the clients in question, generally the client with the shorter relationship with us. Because of obligations of confidentiality it is often not possible for us to identify the other client or the subject matter involved when we advise a client that we can no longer act for them.

We value our good relationships with our clients. However, difficulties and misunderstandings do occasionally arise. If you have any problems, you should feel free to discuss with us regarding your concerns with the member of our professional staff dealing with your work. For such concerns, you can reach us at info@anuation.com

You may terminate our relationship at any time by writing to us. If there is a good reason, we may terminate the relationship ourselves by giving you written notice. In either case, if the relationship is terminated we will require you to pay our charges and expenses up to and including the date of such termination

If any part of these Terms of Business is found by a court to be void or ineffective, the remaining provisions shall continue to be effective.

The rights of the parties to rescind or vary this agreement are not subject to the consent of any other person.

These Terms of Business are governed by and will be construed in accordance with the law of India.