The Research House Clearance Services Inc. (“Research House”) Standard Terms and Conditions (“Standard Terms”)
Thank you for contracting us to provide the clearance services on your production. The following confirms the terms of our engagement for such services. If you do not agree to these Standard Terms, you should not use the products or services provided by Research House in any way. Our products are offered to you conditioned on your acceptance, without modification, of the following:
We provide research services only. Our reports and products are intended as a guide for clearance purposes and are solely research products and as such are subject to human error. Our products and services are not intended to be an insurance policy, a guarantee against liability, or a legal opinion. No employee of Research House is authorized to provide legal advice by means of a report or otherwise. A lawyer should be consulted with respect to all clearance issues related to the production. Research House does not provide legal advice by means of our reports or otherwise. You are encouraged to consult an entertainment lawyer when utilizing our reports and to obtain errors & omissions insurance.
The sources consulted for our reports represent the most current information available as of the date listed on the cover page of the report. Our reports are intended for your use only and no other person or entity shall have or acquire any rights to use or rely on such report. Any liability arising out of, or in any way related to the preparation or use of, or reliance on our reports is limited to the amount of fee paid by you for the product. Please note that our reports apply only to the property as identified by the title and the draft date as listed on the face page of the report. A new report should be obtained if such property is changed in any way.
Our reports are based on the information that you provide us with. Accordingly, after we provide you with your initial report(s), it is your responsibility to ensure that any revisions to the script(s) or title(s) are sent to us for review. We cannot be liable for any changes to the script(s) or title(s) that we are not made aware of by you. We only review lines in the script(s) that are marked with asterisks. Therefore, it is your responsibility to ensure that any changes to script(s) submitted to us for review are properly and accurately marked. We are not liable for any errors that result from a script or title being improperly or inaccurately marked. We are also not liable if you choose not to follow or implement our recommendations as outlined in our reports or notes, or if you choose not to have us do further research if we find new items in the revised script(s).
You are advised that no character, whether in a live action or an animated production, can be based on or resemble an actual living person without that person’s consent. Furthermore, no character, whether in a live action or an animated production, can be based on or resemble another fictitious character (live or animated) or a toy, design, caricature, or drawing without appropriate consent unless such is part of the public domain. Accordingly, we bear no responsibility for any infringements or alleged infringements in these situations.
You are advised to consult legal counsel regarding any visual identifications, representations or recognizable imitations of potentially copyrighted or protected works and elements thereof, including copyrighted adaptations and interpretations of otherwise public-domain themed works.
You are advised to consult legal counsel regarding the use of any third-party proprietary works or any elements therefrom, including potentially copyrighted or otherwise protected adaptations or translations, sequels, etc. of otherwise public-domain works.
By their nature, animated productions feature significant amounts of artistic content in the form of visual images. If any of these images are identical or substantially similar to pre-existing artistic works owned by third parties, even if such duplication or similarity is unintentional, the production may be liable for copyright infringement. The research in our reports is based solely on text descriptions. We confirm that we do not conduct any investigation, research, or review whatsoever relating to clearances of artistic images, and all responsibility for artistic copyright infringements remains with the production. We strongly urge you to consult an attorney experienced in copyright and entertainment matters for advice on the best methods to reduce or eliminate legal exposure regarding the possibility of artistic copyright infringement as it pertains to visual images embedded in animated production.
It is advisable that use of actual brand name or commercial products, recognizable voices and characters, or other items protected by copyright or trademark be avoided, unless permission has been obtained for such use. If you do require permission for use of such items, this service can be provided by Research House for an additional fee.
The use of clips from other productions can be problematic, involving a number of clearance issues apart from permission to use the footage itself. Our reports do not address all of these issues and it is recommended that legal advice be sought where clips are being considered for use.
If this is an animated production which may enjoy some form of merchandising, preliminary searches will be made of all relevant names with our standard trademark, trade name, publishing, and general news sources. However, it is recommended that your legal counsel conduct a comprehensive search prior to entering into any binding merchandising/ licensing agreements.
Elements or dialog that contains violence, sexuality profanity ethnic or sexual stereotyping should be reviewed with your broadcaster or distributor so as not to offend community or broadcast standards. We also suggest that an on-screen disclaimer be used in every case indicating that any resemblance to events, ideas persons, products and institutions, either real or fictitious, is inadvertent and unintended.
While we make best efforts to ensure that client information is secure by: (a) using secured data management systems such as Google Drive (leveraging their secure world-class data centers to store client information); and (b) implementing end-to-end encryption and multi-factor authentication, we cannot fully guarantee that such systems will be entirely free from hacking, ransomware, phishing and other malicious cyber attacks. Accordingly, you agree in advance to release, waive, forever discharge, us and our employees, officers, and agents from any and all liability for any harm, injury, damage, claims, demands, actions, causes of action, costs, and expenses of any nature that may result from such hacking, ransomware, phishing and other malicious cyber attacks, including but not limited to breaches of confidentiality or privacy.
Our Statements of Account will include fees, disbursements and applicable taxes and are due and payable on receipt. Any balance remaining unpaid more than THIRTY (30) days after the invoice date bears interest from the invoice date to the date of payment at an annual rate of EIGHTEEN PERCENT (18%).
You shall have the right to terminate our services upon written notice to that effect, delivered to our offices during business hours. The following obligations will nevertheless continue in full force and effect regardless of termination:
• Payment of Statements of Account rendered which are outstanding;
• Payment of unbilled fees, disbursements, expenses and taxes; and
• Obligations undertaken or incurred on the client’s behalf up to the time of termination.
This Agreement shall in all respects be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of British Columbia, Canada applicable to contracts entered into and fully performed therein. Only the British Columbia courts (Provincial and Federal) shall have jurisdiction over controversies regarding this Agreement and the parties consent to the same. Any proceeding involving such a controversy shall be brought in those courts, in the City of Vancouver.
Your acceptance and use of our products constitutes an acceptance of the above Standard Terms.