Terms of Service — PatentSonar

Version 1.0 · Effective 2026-09-26

These Terms govern the PatentSonar subscription service. By requesting a sample issue, creating an account or completing a purchase, you accept them on behalf of the organisation you represent and confirm you are authorised to do so.

Provider. Rockfort Hub de Inovação Ltda, trading as PatentSonar ("PatentSonar", "we"), a limited company organised under the laws of Brazil, CNPJ 40.435.866/0001-40, Av. Tiradentes 209, Centro, São João del Rei, Minas Gerais, 36307-346, Brazil. Contact: legal@patentsonar.com (legal), support@patentsonar.com or +55 32 93618-2698 (support), billing@patentsonar.com (billing).

1. Definitions. "Service": the subscription described in Section 2. "Content": every issue, report, alert, archive page, dataset extract and analyst note we deliver. "Subscriber" or "you": the legal entity named at checkout or on an Order Form. "Reader": a named individual authorised by the Subscriber to receive Content within the seat limit of the plan. "Order Form": our written order document for Enterprise plans. "Coverage Stream": one technology area; Stream 01 is rare-earth-free and rare-earth-lean permanent magnets.

2. The Service. PatentSonar is a business-to-business information service: a weekly email briefing, a monthly landscape report and, on some plans, alerts, archive access and data export, covering published patent documents in one Coverage Stream per subscription. Plan contents and seat limits are those shown on the pricing page or the Order Form on the start date. Each Coverage Stream monitors the patent offices listed on the pricing page; further offices are added on a Subscriber's written request at no extra charge, from the next weekly issue after the request. Content is prepared by PatentSonar's analysts with the help of automated systems and is checked against the official patent records before release.

3. Information only; no professional advice. The Content is general information. It is not legal advice, a freedom-to-operate, validity, infringement or patentability opinion, and not investment advice. Patent data is taken from official patent offices and public datasets and may be incomplete, delayed or later corrected by the issuing office. You remain responsible for verifying any document with the issuing office and for taking professional advice before acting. No attorney–client or similar relationship arises from the Service.

4. Orders, the reseller and taxes. Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com (Paddle.com Market Limited, UK, or Paddle.com Inc., US, depending on your location). Paddle is the Merchant of Record for all our orders: it sells the subscription to you, collects payment, issues the receipt and invoice, calculates and remits sales taxes and VAT, and handles payment questions, refunds and chargebacks under its Buyer Terms (paddle.com/legal/buyer-terms), which apply to the purchase together with these Terms. Fees are stated in US dollars and charged in advance for each billing period. Taxes are added or reverse-charged according to your location and the tax identification you provide at checkout. Enterprise plans may be invoiced against a purchase order as set out in the Order Form.

5. Term, renewal and cancellation. Monthly and annual subscriptions renew automatically for successive periods of the same length until cancelled. We send a reminder email to the billing contact at least 30 days before each annual renewal. You may cancel at any time from the billing portal linked in your receipt or by email to billing@patentsonar.com; cancellation stops future renewals and access continues to the end of the paid period. Enterprise annual contracts run for the term in the Order Form and are not cancellable for convenience during that term. Refunds are governed by the Refund Policy.

6. Licence. Subject to payment, we grant the Subscriber a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence for the subscription term to receive, store and use the Content for the Subscriber's internal business purposes, through the number of Readers on the plan. Readers may quote short excerpts internally with attribution to PatentSonar. Except as allowed in this Section, the Subscriber may not, and may not permit anyone to: resell, sublicense, publish or redistribute Content outside the Subscriber's organisation; forward issues to people who are not Readers; make Content available on any public or shared system beyond the Subscriber's internal systems; remove notices; or use Content, in whole or in substantial part, to train, fine-tune or ground a machine-learning system or a competing product or service. Bibliographic patent data (numbers, dates, applicants, classifications, titles, abstracts) is public information and remains free for any use; the restrictions in this Section apply to our selection, arrangement, analysis and commentary.

7. Accounts and Readers. The Subscriber keeps the Reader list accurate and is responsible for Readers' compliance with these Terms. Reader seats may be reassigned when a person changes role or leaves. If we find delivery to unlicensed addresses, we may ask you to regularise the seat count or, after notice, suspend delivery.

8. Delivery commitment and credits. We aim to deliver an issue every week. We may skip or delay issues, for example over year-end holidays or when a data source is unavailable; when we skip an issue we say so in the next one. If we deliver fewer than 45 weekly issues in any 12-month paid period, you may request a pro-rata credit or refund for the shortfall as set out in the Refund Policy. This is your sole remedy for missed or delayed issues.

9. Intellectual property and data sources. The Content's selection, arrangement, analysis, commentary, templates and marks are owned by PatentSonar or its licensors and protected by copyright and related rights. Patent documents remain the works of their applicants and the issuing offices. Some data is used under open licences that require attribution, including Google Patents Public Data (IFI CLAIMS Patent Services and Google, CC BY 4.0) and PatentsView (CC BY 4.0), and bibliographic data supplied by the European Patent Office under its Open Patent Services terms, which we do not redistribute as raw data. Trademarks of applicants named in the Content belong to their owners. Any feedback you give us may be used without restriction or attribution.

10. Confidentiality. Content is confidential to the Subscriber and its Readers until we publish it openly. We treat non-public information you share with us (for example reader lists, watchlists and questions) as confidential and use it only to provide the Service.

11. Personal data. We process personal data as described in our Privacy Policy. For Team and Enterprise plans, and for any Subscriber that requires it, we sign our Data Processing Addendum, which incorporates the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the LGPD standard clauses where transfers require them.

12. Acceptable use and sanctions. You may not use the Service in breach of law, to harass, or to circumvent seat limits or access controls. We do not offer the Service to persons or entities in countries or on lists subject to comprehensive sanctions under Brazilian, EU, UK or US law, or where Paddle does not process payments.

13. Warranties and disclaimers. We warrant that we will provide the Service with reasonable skill and care. To the maximum extent permitted by law, all other warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement, are excluded. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law, including liability for fraud (dolo) or gross negligence.

14. Limitation of liability. To the maximum extent permitted by law: (a) our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Service in any 12-month period is limited to the fees paid by the Subscriber for the Service in that period; and (b) we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, loss of profits, revenue, business or goodwill, or the loss, invalidation or infringement of any patent or other right, however arising, even if advised of the possibility.

15. Suspension and termination. We may suspend or terminate the Service for non-payment (after the reminders described in our billing communications, with a 21-day grace period from the failed charge) or for material breach of Sections 6, 7 or 12 after written notice and a 14-day cure period where cure is possible. On termination, the licence ends and Readers must stop distributing Content, but the Subscriber may keep copies of Content already delivered for internal reference. Sections 3, 6 (restrictions), 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 18 survive termination.

16. Changes to the Service or Terms. We may improve or change the Service, provided we do not materially reduce what your plan includes during a paid term. We may update these Terms on at least 30 days' notice by email to the billing contact; continued use after the effective date is acceptance. If a change materially reduces your rights, you may terminate before the effective date and receive a pro-rata refund of prepaid fees for the remaining term. Price changes take effect only at the next renewal and never before the end of your current paid term.

17. Governing law and disputes. These Terms and any dispute arising out of them are governed by the laws of the Federative Republic of Brazil, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The parties will first try in good faith to resolve any dispute by written negotiation for 30 days. Failing that, the courts of the judicial district (comarca) of São João del Rei, Minas Gerais, Brazil have exclusive jurisdiction, and each party waives any other forum, however privileged. Either party may seek injunctive relief in any competent court to protect intellectual property or confidential information. For Enterprise contracts, the Order Form may provide instead for arbitration or another governing law and forum. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

18. General. These Terms, the Refund Policy, the Privacy Policy, the Data Processing Addendum where signed, and any Order Form form the entire agreement and supersede prior discussions; in case of conflict an Order Form prevails, then these Terms. Neither party is liable for delay caused by events beyond its reasonable control. You may not assign this agreement without our consent, not unreasonably withheld; we may assign it to a successor of our business on notice. Notices to us go to legal@patentsonar.com; notices to you go to the billing contact's email. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in force. No waiver is implied from delay. These Terms are written in English; the English text prevails over any translation.

19. Contact. legal@patentsonar.com · support@patentsonar.com · +55 32 93618-2698 · Rockfort Hub de Inovação Ltda, Av. Tiradentes 209, Centro, São João del Rei, Minas Gerais, 36307-346, Brazil.

Version 1.0.2, effective 2026-09-26 (support phone added; additional patent offices on request, Section 2). Reviewed and adopted at the founder's direction (legal/REVIEWSTATUS.md)._