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1. Your Relationship with Cognician

Your use of Cognician’s products, software, services, and websites (referred to collectively as the “Services” in this document and excluding any services provided to you by Cognician under a separate written agreement) is subject to the terms of a legal agreement between you and Cognician. “Cognician” means Cognician Software (Pty) Ltd (whose principal place of business is at 18 Blombos Close, Sunnydale, Cape Town, 7975, South Africa), including its associated and subsidiary company, Cognician, Inc. (whose principal place of business is at Suite 1628, 535 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA).


   This document explains the agreement, and sets out some of the terms of that agreement.
  1. Unless otherwise agreed in writing with Cognician, your agreement with Cognician will always include, at a minimum, the terms and conditions set out in this document. These are referred to below as the “Universal Terms”.
  2. Your agreement with Cognician will also include the terms of any Legal Notices applicable to the Services, in addition to the Universal Terms. All of these are referred to below as the “Additional Terms”. Where Additional Terms apply to a Service, these will be accessible for you to read either within, or through your use of, that Service.
  3. The Universal Terms, together with the Additional Terms, form a legally binding agreement between you and Cognician in relation to your use of the Services. It is important that you take the time to read them carefully. Collectively, this legal agreement is referred to below as the “Terms”.
  4. If there is any contradiction between what the Additional Terms say and what the Universal Terms say, then the Additional Terms shall take precedence in relation to that Service.

2. Accepting the Terms

  1. In order to use the Services, you must first agree to the Terms. You may not use the Services if you do not accept the Terms.
  2. You can accept the Terms by:
    1. Clicking to accept or agree to the Terms where this option is made available to you by Cognician in the user interface for any Service; or
    2. Actually using the Services. In this case, you understand and agree that Cognician will treat your use of the Services as acceptance of the Terms from that point onwards.
  3. You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Cognician, or (b) you are a person barred from receiving the Services under the laws of the Republic of South Africa or other countries including the country in which you are resident or from which you use the Services.
  4. Before you continue, you should print out or save a local copy of the Universal Terms for your records.

3. Language of the Terms

  1. Where Cognician has provided you with a translation of the English language version of the Terms, then you agree that the translation is provided for your convenience only and that the English language versions of the Terms will govern your relationship with Cognician.
  2. If there is any contradiction between what the English language version of the Terms says and what a translation says, then the English language version shall take precedence.

4. Provision of the Services by Cognician

  1. Cognician is continually innovating in order to provide you with the best possible experience. That means you acknowledge and agree that Cognician may tweak and change the form and nature of the Services provided without prior notice, but that Cognician will endeavor to provide such notice.
  2. As part of this continuing innovation, you acknowledge and agree that Cognician may stop (permanently or temporarily) providing the Services (or any features within the Services) to you or to users generally at Cognician’s sole discretion, without prior notice to you. Should you wish to stop using Cognician Services you are completely entitled to do so at any point and without notice to us. You are similarly welcome to request that your access to Cognician Services be terminated at any point.
  3. You acknowledge and agree that if Cognician disables access to your account, you may be prevented from accessing the Services, your account details, or any files or other content that is contained in your account but that you may at any time prior to disablement request to view and receive in a reasonably exportable format the entirety of the data associated to your account. You are also welcome to request that your information be deleted or suitably forgotten.
  4. You acknowledge and agree that while Cognician may not currently have set a fixed upper limit on the number of transmissions you may send or receive through the Services or on the amount of storage space used for the provision of any Service, such fixed upper limits may be set by Cognician at any time, at Cognician’s discretion.

5. Use of the Services by You

  1. In order to access certain Services, you may be required to provide information about yourself (such as identification or contact details) as part of the registration process for the Service, or as part of your continued use of the Services. You agree that any registration information you give to Cognician will always be accurate, correct, and up to date. Similarly, Cognician will ensure that you are able to update your information at any time.
  2. You agree to use the Services only for purposes that are permitted by (a) the Terms and (b) any applicable law, regulation, or generally accepted practices or guidelines in the relevant jurisdictions (including any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the Republic of South Africa or other relevant countries).
  3. You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Cognician, unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Cognician. You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services through any automated means (including use of scripts or web crawlers) and shall ensure that you comply with the instructions set out in any robots.txt file present on the Services.
  4. You agree that you will not engage in any activity that interferes with or disrupts the Services (or the servers and networks that are connected to the Services).
  5. Unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in a separate agreement with Cognician, you agree that you will not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, or resell the Services for any purpose.
  6. You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that Cognician has no responsibility to you or to any third party for) any breach of your obligations under the Terms and for the consequences (including any loss or damage which Cognician may suffer) of any such breach.
  7. You agree not to engage in any activity that utilizes our products or services in any way for the purpose of collecting or processing sensitive information.

6. Your Passwords and Account Security

  1. You agree and understand that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of passwords associated with any account you use to access the Services.
  2. Accordingly, you agree that you will be solely responsible to Cognician for all activities that occur under your account.
  3. If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or of your account, you agree to notify Cognician immediately by sending a message to the Cognician Security team.

7. Privacy and Caring for Your Personal Information on Our Platform

  1. For information about Cognician’s data protection practices, please read Cognician’s Privacy Policy. This Policy explains how Cognician treats your personal information and protects your privacy, when you use the Services.
  2. You agree to the use of your data in accordance with Cognician’s Privacy Policy.
  3. We will use personal data only in order to provide services and support to you and only as permitted by applicable law, this Agreement, and our Privacy Policy.
  4. We will never sell your personal data to third parties, or use personal data to contact any individual or company except as you direct or otherwise permit, nor will we use personal data for marketing purposes.
  5. In order for us to improve our services, we may monitor customer usage of our services. No personally identifiable information will be collected and or used in any analysis without direct consent.
  6. We will ensure appropriate security measures are in place to protect your personal data. We will maintain technical and organizational security safeguards equal to the standards and best practices adopted within the industry.
  7. You consent to the processing of Customer Data in the United States, the UK, and the EU.

8. Content in the Services

  1. You understand that all information (such as data files, written text, computer software, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos, or other images) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, the Services are the sole responsibility of the person from which such content originated. All such information is referred to below as the “Content”.
  2. You should be aware that Content presented to you as part of the Services, including but not limited to advertisements in the Services and sponsored Content within the Services may be protected by intellectual property rights which are owned by the sponsors or advertisers who provide that Content to Cognician (or by other persons or companies on their behalf). You may not modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute, or create derivative works based on this Content (either in whole or in part) unless you have been specifically told that you may do so by Cognician or by the owners of that Content, in a separate agreement.
  3. Cognician reserves the right (but shall have no obligation) to pre-screen, review, flag, filter, modify, refuse, or remove any or all Content from any Service.
  4. You understand that by using the Services you may be exposed to Content that you may find offensive, indecent, or objectionable and that, this not being Cognician’s intent, you use the Services at your own risk in this respect.
  5. You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that Cognician has no responsibility to you or to any third party for) any Content that you create, transmit, or display while using the Services and for the consequences of your actions (including any loss or damage which Cognician may suffer) by doing so.

9. Proprietary Rights

  1. You acknowledge and agree that Cognician (or Cognician’s licensors) own all legal rights, title, and interest in and to the Services, including any intellectual property rights that subsist in the Services (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). You further acknowledge that the Services may contain information that is designated confidential by Cognician and that you shall not disclose such information without Cognician’s prior written consent.
  2. Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with Cognician, nothing in the Terms gives you a right to use any of Cognician’s trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features.
  3. If you have been given an explicit right to use any of these brand features in a separate written agreement with Cognician, then you agree that your use of such features shall be in compliance with that agreement, any applicable provisions of the Terms, and Cognician’s brand feature use guidelines as updated from time to time.
  4. Other than the limited license set forth in Section 11, Cognician acknowledges and agrees that it obtains no right, title, or interest from you (or your licensors) under these Terms in or to any Content that you submit, post, transmit or display on, or through, the Services, including any intellectual property rights that subsist in that Content (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with Cognician, you agree that you are responsible for protecting and enforcing those rights and that Cognician has no obligation to do so on your behalf.
  5. You agree that you shall not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary rights notices (including copyright and trademark notices) which may be affixed to or contained within the Services.
  6. Unless you have been expressly authorized to do so in writing by Cognician, you agree that in using the Services, you will not use any trademark, service mark, trade name, or logo of any company or organization in a way that is likely or intended to cause confusion about the owner or authorized user of such marks, names, or logos.

10. License from Cognician

  1. Cognician gives you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable, and non-exclusive license to use the software provided to you by Cognician as part of the Services as provided to you by Cognician (referred to as the “Software” below). This license is for the sole purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of the Services as provided by Cognician, in the manner permitted by the Terms.
  2. You may not (and you may not permit anyone else to) copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of the Software or any part thereof, unless this is expressly permitted or required by law, or unless you have been specifically told that you may do so by Cognician, in writing.
  3. Unless Cognician has given you specific written permission to do so, you may not assign (or grant a sub-license of) your rights to use the Software, grant a security interest in or over your rights to use the Software, or otherwise transfer any part of your rights to use the Software.

11. Content License from You

  1. You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post, or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting, or displaying the content you give Cognician a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, and distribute any Content that you submit, post, or display on or through the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Cognician to display, distribute, and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.
  2. You agree that this license includes a right for Cognician to make such Content available to other companies, organizations, or individuals with whom Cognician has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.
  3. You understand that Cognician, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services, or media. You agree that this license shall permit Cognician to take these actions.
  4. You confirm and warrant to Cognician that you have all the rights, power, and authority necessary to grant the above license.

12. Software Updates

  1. The Software that you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Cognician. These updates are designed to improve, enhance, and further develop the Services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules, and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Cognician to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the Services.

13. Ending Your Relationship with Cognician

  1. The Terms will continue to apply until terminated by either you or Cognician as set out below.
  2. If you want to terminate your legal agreement with Cognician, you may do so by (a) notifying Cognician at any time, and (b) closing your accounts for all of the Services that you use, where Cognician has made this option available to you. Your notice should be sent, in writing, to Cognician’s address which is set out at the beginning of these Terms.
  3. Cognician may, at any time, terminate its legal agreement with you if:
    1. You have breached any provision of the Terms (or have acted in manner that clearly shows that you do not intend to, or are unable to comply with the provisions of the Terms); or
    2. Cognician is required to do so by law (for example, where the provision of the Services to you is, or becomes, unlawful); or
    3. The partner with whom Cognician offered the Services to you has terminated its relationship with Cognician or ceased to offer the Services to you; or
    4. Cognician is transitioning to no longer providing the Services to users in the country in which you are resident or from which you use the Services; or
    5. The provision of the Services to you by Cognician is, in Cognician’s opinion, no longer commercially viable.
  4. Nothing in this Section shall affect Cognician’s rights regarding provision of Services under Section 4 of the Terms.
  5. When these Terms come to an end, all of the legal rights, obligations, and liabilities that you and Cognician have benefited from, been subject to (or which have accrued over time whilst the Terms have been in force), or which are expressed to continue indefinitely, shall be unaffected by this cessation, and the provisions of Section 20.7 shall continue to apply to such rights, obligations, and liabilities indefinitely.

14. EXCLUSION OF WARRANTIES

  1. NOTHING IN THESE TERMS, INCLUDING SECTIONS 14 AND 15, SHALL EXCLUDE OR LIMIT COGNICIAN’S WARRANTY OR LIABILITY FOR LOSSES THAT MAY NOT BE LAWFULLY EXCLUDED OR LIMITED BY APPLICABLE LAW. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE, BREACH OF CONTRACT, OR BREACH OF IMPLIED TERMS, OR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, ONLY THE LIMITATIONS THAT ARE LAWFUL IN YOUR JURISDICTION WILL APPLY TO YOU, AND OUR LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
  2. YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”.
  3. IN PARTICULAR, COGNICIAN, ITS SUBSIDIARIES AND AFFILIATES, AND ITS LICENSORS DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT TO YOU THAT:
    1. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS,
    2. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR FREE FROM ERROR,
    3. ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED BY YOU AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, AND
    4. THAT DEFECTS IN THE OPERATION OR FUNCTIONALITY OF ANY SOFTWARE PROVIDED TO YOU AS PART OF THE SERVICES WILL BE CORRECTED.
  4. ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICES IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR OTHER DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.
  5. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM COGNICIAN, OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICES, SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE TERMS.
  6. COGNICIAN FURTHER EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

15. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

  1. SUBJECT TO OVERALL PROVISION IN PARAGRAPH 14.1 ABOVE, YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT COGNICIAN, ITS SUBSIDIARIES AND AFFILIATES, AND ITS LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR:
    1. ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES THAT MAY BE INCURRED BY YOU, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY. THIS SHALL INCLUDE, BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO, ANY LOSS OF PROFIT (WHETHER INCURRED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY), ANY LOSS OF GOODWILL OR BUSINESS REPUTATION, ANY LOSS OF DATA SUFFERED, COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSS;
    2. ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE THAT MAY BE INCURRED BY YOU, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OR DAMAGE AS A RESULT OF:
      1. ANY RELIANCE PLACED BY YOU ON THE COMPLETENESS, ACCURACY, OR EXISTENCE OF ANY ADVERTISING, OR AS A RESULT OF ANY RELATIONSHIP OR TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND ANY ADVERTISER OR SPONSOR WHOSE ADVERTISING APPEARS ON THE SERVICES;
      2. ANY CHANGES THAT COGNICIAN MAY MAKE TO THE SERVICES, OR FOR ANY PERMANENT OR TEMPORARY CESSATION IN THE PROVISION OF THE SERVICES (OR ANY FEATURES WITHIN THE SERVICES);
      3. THE DELETION OF, CORRUPTION OF, OR FAILURE TO STORE, ANY CONTENT AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS DATA MAINTAINED OR TRANSMITTED BY OR THROUGH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES;
      4. YOUR FAILURE TO PROVIDE COGNICIAN WITH ACCURATE ACCOUNT INFORMATION;
      5. YOUR FAILURE TO KEEP YOUR PASSWORD OR ACCOUNT DETAILS SECURE AND CONFIDENTIAL.
  2. THE LIMITATIONS ON COGNICIAN’S LIABILITY TO YOU IN PARAGRAPH 15.1 ABOVE SHALL APPLY WHETHER OR NOT COGNICIAN HAS BEEN ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH LOSSES ARISING.

16. Copyright and Trademark Policies

  1. It is Cognician’s policy to respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable international intellectual property law (including, in the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.
  2. Cognician operates a trademark complaints procedure. Trademark complaints should be addressed to: complaints@cognician.com.

17. Advertisements

  1. Some of the Services may be supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services, or other information.
  2. The manner, mode, and extent of advertising by Cognician on the Services are subject to change without specific notice to you.
  3. In consideration for Cognician granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Cognician may place such advertising on the Services.

18. Other Content

  1. The Services may include hyperlinks to other websites or content or resources. Cognician may have no control over any websites or resources that are provided by companies or persons other than Cognician.
  2. You acknowledge and agree that Cognician is not responsible for the availability of any such external sites or resources, and does not endorse any advertising, products, or other materials on or available from such websites or resources.
  3. You acknowledge and agree that Cognician is not liable for any loss or damage that may be incurred by you as a result of the availability of those external sites or resources, or as a result of any reliance placed by you on the completeness, accuracy, or existence of any advertising, products, or other materials on, or available from, such websites or resources.

19. Changes to the Terms

  1. Cognician may make changes to the Universal Terms or Additional Terms from time to time. When these changes are made, Cognician will make a new copy of the Universal Terms and any new Additional Terms will be made available to you from within, or through, the affected Services.
  2. You understand and agree that if you use the Services after the date on which the Universal Terms or Additional Terms have changed, Cognician will treat your use as acceptance of the updated Universal Terms or Additional Terms.

20. General Legal Terms

  1. Sometimes when you use the Services, you may (as a result of, or through your use of the Services) use a service or download a piece of software, or purchase goods that are provided by another person or company. Your use of these other services, software, or goods may be subject to separate terms between you and the company or person concerned. If so, the Terms do not affect your legal relationship with these other companies or individuals.
  2. The Terms constitute the whole legal agreement between you and Cognician and govern your use of the Services (but excluding any services that Cognician may provide to you under a separate written agreement), and completely replace any prior agreements between you and Cognician in relation to the Services.
  3. You agree that Cognician may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms, by email, regular mail, or postings on the Services.
  4. You agree that if Cognician does not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy that is contained in the Terms (or which Cognician has the benefit of under any applicable law), this will not be taken to be a formal waiver of Cognician’s rights and that those rights or remedies will still be available to Cognician.
  5. If any court of law, having the jurisdiction to decide on this matter, rules that any provision of these Terms is invalid, then that provision will be removed from the Terms without affecting the rest of the Terms. The remaining provisions of the Terms will continue to be valid and enforceable.
  6. You acknowledge and agree that each member of the group of companies of which Cognician is the parent shall be third-party beneficiaries to the Terms and that such other companies shall be entitled to directly enforce, and rely upon, any provision of the Terms which confers a benefit on (or rights in favor of) them. Other than this, no other person or company shall be third-party beneficiaries to the Terms.
  7. The Terms, and your relationship with Cognician under the Terms, shall be governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. You and Cognician agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the Province of the Western Cape to resolve any legal matter arising from the Terms. Notwithstanding this, you agree that Cognician shall still be allowed to apply for injunctive remedies (or an equivalent type of urgent legal relief) in any jurisdiction.
03 Oct 2023