General terms and conditions
Allgemeine Geschäfts-bedingungen
IPnovation GmbH
1. Validity of the general terms and conditions and deviations
1. Geltung der Allgemeinen Geschäfts-bedingungen und Abweichungen
a) The following General terms and conditions (GTCs) apply to all present and future contracts and/or legal transactions between the client and third parties in their capacity as entrepreneurs and IPnovation GmbH, hereinafter referred to as IPnovation, for service and information services.
b) Deviations from these conditions and in particular also conditions of the client are only valid if they are expressly recognised and confirmed in writing by IPnovation.
c) The instruction to provide services and/or the acceptance of services by the customer constitutes full acceptance of the General terms and conditions.
2. Offers, ancillary agreements
a) Unless otherwise stated, the offers from IPnovation are non-binding with regard to all data provided, including the fee.
a) Unless otherwise stated, the offers from IPnovation are non-binding with regard to all data provided, including the fee.
c) Agreements must be in writing.
3. Order placement
3. Auftrags-erteilung
a) The type and scope of the agreed service result from the contract, any power of attorney and these general terms and conditions.
b) Changes and additions to the order require written confirmation by IPnovation in order to become the subject of this contractual relationship.
c) IPnovation undertakes to carry out the order given to it properly in accordance with the generally recognised rules of technology and the principles of economic efficiency.
d) IPnovation is committed to the standard for research on intellectual property rights (SIGNO Standard).
e) IPnovation can commission subcontractors, such as database providers and information service providers, to fulfill the contract.
4. Warranty and compensation for damages
a) Warranty claims can only be made following notification of defects, which must be made exclusively by registered letter within 14 days of delivery of the service.
b) Claims for cancellation and price reduction are excluded. Claims for improvement or supplementation of the missing items must be fulfilled by IPnovation within a reasonable period of time, which should generally be one third of the period agreed for the performance of the service. A claim for damages caused by delay cannot be asserted within this period.
c) IPnovation must provide its services with the care expected of it as a specialist (§1299 General Civil Code (ABGB)).
d) If IPnovation has culpably caused damage to the customer in breach of its contractual obligations, its liability for compensation for the damage caused thereby is limited, unless otherwise regulated in individual cases, for
- 1. liability for slight negligence as follows: - for an order amount of up to 50,000 euros: maximum 3,000 euros; - for an order amount of up to 100,000 euros: maximum 6,500 euros; - for an order amount of over 200,000 euros: 5 % of the order amount, but no more than 10,000 euros;
- 2. for intentional and grossly negligent behaviour: limited to 10 times the invoice amount of the respective order.
e) The services of IPnovation are based on data from database providers and patent offices, which is why no liability can be accepted for damages caused by incorrect and/or incomplete data or late transmission of the services.
f) IPnovation can only consider data published and accessible by patent offices in its services. For example, patent applications prior to their publication (e.g. after 18 months) cannot be taken into account. g) IPnovation stores the data, information, objects, documents and data carriers provided to it according to the current state of the art (e.g. safe, password protection, virus protection, etc.), but assumes no liability if data, information, objects, documents and data carriers are taken, copied or spied upon without authorisation.
5. Cancellation of the contract
a) Cancellation of the contract is only permissible for good cause.
b) If IPnovation is in default with a service, the client may only withdraw from the contract after setting a reasonable grace period; the grace period must be set by registered letter.
c) If the client defaults on a partial service or an agreed cooperation activity, which makes the execution of the order by IPnovation impossible or significantly hinders it, IPnovation is entitled to withdraw from the contract.
d) If IPnovation is entitled to withdraw from the contract, it retains the right to the entire agreed fee, as well as in the case of unjustified withdrawal by the client. Furthermore, §1168 ABGB applies; in the event of a justified cancellation by the client, the client must pay for the services provided by IPnovation.
6. Fees, scope of services
6. Honorar, Leistungs-umfang
a) Unless otherwise stated, all fees are in euros.
b) The fees quoted do not include value added tax (VAT), which must be paid separately by the client.
c) Compensation with any counterclaims, for whatever reason, is inadmissible.
d) Unless expressly agreed otherwise, payment shall be made without deductions within 14 days of invoicing to the account specified by IPnovation without any deductions. In the event of late payment, interest of 9.2% per annum above the base rate of the ECB plus reminder fees shall be payable.
e) Objections to the content of an invoice must be submitted within 14 days and will no longer be accepted thereafter.
7. Confidentiality
a) IPnovation is obliged to maintain the confidentiality of all business and trade secrets transmitted in writing by the client. All non-obvious occurrences are considered business and trade secrets, and in case of doubt, everything that is not already known elsewhere.
8. Choice of law, place of jurisdiction
a) Only Austrian law applies to contracts between the client and IPnovation.
b) For all disputes arising from this contract, the jurisdiction of the competent court at IPnovation's registered office is agreed.
Status as of January 01, 2020