Terms of use

1. Publisher and purpose

1.1 The Patent is an international magazine about patents, inventions and innovation published at thepatent.news by WitUp Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales, Company No. 16572774, registered office 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom ("the Publisher").

1.2 With a single account the user can use, within the limits set: a) Read & Explore: reading, the newsletter and the free version of The Patent AI; b) Contributor: free proposals of articles and news to the newsroom. From the same account the user can activate paid services, which remain governed by their own terms.

2. Registration and account

2.1 Users provide true and up-to-date information, keep their login details confidential and are responsible for the use of their account.

2.2 Registration is open only to people aged 18 or over.

2.3 The Publisher may suspend or close an account for a breach of these Terms or of the law, notifying the user.

3. Permitted use

3.1 Using the site and the services for unlawful purposes, collecting content or data by automated means without permission, getting around limits and quotas, uploading malware, impersonating others or infringing third-party rights is not allowed.

3.2 The editorial content of The Patent is protected by copyright. Reading, sharing links and quoting short extracts with the source and a link to the article are allowed. Reproducing articles in full without the Publisher’s written permission is not.

3.3 Without the Publisher’s written permission, copying, extracting or downloading the content of the site systematically or by automated means, including through robots, scrapers or crawlers, and using it to train, develop or improve artificial intelligence systems is not allowed. Indexing by search engines and by services that quote the source with a link remains allowed, according to the technical instructions published by the Publisher (robots.txt).

4. The Patent AI, free version

4.1 The Patent AI is the magazine’s research assistant: it answers questions about patents, inventions and innovation, showing the sources used.

4.2 The free version is available within daily question quotas, counted per account and per connection, which the Publisher shows in the service and may change. When the quota is used up, the service is available again the next day. Use that exceeds or abuses the quotas may be limited.

4.3 Answers are generated automatically with artificial intelligence tools, may be incomplete or inaccurate and must be checked against the sources quoted. They are for information only: they are not legal, patent, financial or professional advice, nor an opinion on whether an idea is patentable or free to use.

4.4 Users must not enter confidential information or secrets about inventions not yet filed: doing so may destroy their novelty. The Publisher processes questions and answers as described in the Privacy notice.

5. Contributors

5.1 A Contributor proposes articles, news or tips free of charge. A proposal does not oblige the Publisher to publish it and gives no right to payment.

5.2 The Contributor is the author of the proposed content, is responsible for it and warrants that it: a) is true, not misleading and not defamatory; b) does not infringe third-party rights (copyright, trade marks, patents, image, personal data) and is supported by the consents needed from identifiable people; c) states whether text or images were substantially generated with artificial intelligence.

5.3 Proposals are assessed by the newsroom, also with AI tools. The newsroom freely decides whether to publish, may edit the text in journalistic form, refuse it or remove it. The assessment is not a statement of truthfulness in the Contributor’s favour.

5.4 Published content shows the label "Contributor" and the author’s name, unless agreed otherwise. The labelling of AI-generated content and the magazine’s editorial rules apply.

5.5 Licence: by proposing content, the Contributor grants the Publisher a free, non-exclusive, worldwide licence with no time limit to assess, publish, adapt in journalistic form, translate, archive and index it, include it in newsletters, social channels, the magazine’s periodical publications and the answers of The Patent AI, and distribute it through partners, naming the author. The Contributor keeps ownership and moral rights in the content.

5.6 Indemnity: the Contributor indemnifies the Publisher against claims, losses and expenses arising from a breach of the warranties in article 5.2, within the limits allowed by law.

6. Intellectual property

6.1 The "The Patent" trade mark, the magazine, the platform, the software, the databases and the editorial content belong to the Publisher or to their respective owners. Registering does not transfer any right in them.

7. Personal data

7.1 The Publisher processes account data as controller, as described in the Privacy notice, which also sets out the data subject’s rights and the providers involved. The representative in the European Union under article 27 GDPR is being appointed; until then, and for any request about personal data, the contact is privacy@witup.ai.

7.2 If proposed content contains personal data of third parties, the Contributor is an independent controller of that data and warrants that its processing is lawful.

8. Liability

8.1 The free services are provided as they are, with no guarantee of continuity or results.

8.2 As far as the law allows, the Publisher is not liable for indirect loss or for decisions users take on the basis of the answers of The Patent AI or of the content of the site. Consumers’ mandatory rights and liability for wilful misconduct or gross negligence remain unaffected.

9. Closing the account

9.1 Users may close their account at any time from the settings or by writing to the Publisher. Content already published as a Contributor stays in the archive, unless removal is requested with good reason or required by data protection law.

10. Changes

10.1 The Publisher may update these Terms. Material changes are notified by email to registered users at least 30 days before they take effect; users who do not accept them may close their account.

11. Governing law and jurisdiction

11.1 These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.

11.2 Users who are consumers keep the mandatory protections of the law of the country where they live and may bring proceedings before the courts of that country.

11.3 These Terms are available in English; any translation published later is for convenience only and the English version prevails.