Acceptable use policies and terms of use

Words and expressions used in this page and elsewhere in a Practice Website are defined at the bottom of this page.

Courtesy and Common Sense. Participation in message boards and other online interaction with other users of Practice Websites should be governed by the same rules of courtesy and common sense as face-to-face interactions with other people who may share different opinions.

Unacceptable Behaviour. You will not (nor will you aid or abet any third party to):

1. upload, post, email or otherwise transmit to a Practice Website any material that is:
   1. confidential or proprietary to you or any other person or entity, or that you do not have the right to disclose generally to the public;
   2. unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful or invasive of the rights of any other person or entity;
   3. likely to infringe or misappropriate any patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any other person or entity;
   4. or a virus, worm or Trojan horse, or any other computer code that is likely to disrupt, overload, harm or impair the functioning of any Practice Website;
2. attempt to impersonate any other person, or otherwise misrepresent your identity, qualifications, affiliations or any other information about you;
3. solicit other users or post any advertisement without the express consent of Johnson Stokes & Master (“JSM”), its representative offices and/or consultancy service provider (hereinafter referred to as the “JSM Practices”);
4. attempt to disrupt, overload, harm or impair the functioning of any Practice Website; or
5. engage in any conduct that is unlawful, disruptive or otherwise inappropriate.

Postings Not Anonymous. JSM does not, nor does any JSM Practice, guarantee that any message-board posting or other material that you post on any Practice Website will not be traceable to you, either by any JSM Practice or other users. Each JSM Practice reserves the right to monitor any and all of your activities on Practice Websites, and to take appropriate action with respect to inappropriate or unlawful conduct, including, without limitation, reporting such conduct to appropriate authorities. In some cases, the functionality of Practice Websites or other technology also may allow other users to learn your identity or other information about you. You may be liable to other users, as well as a JSM Practice, for any defamatory or otherwise unlawful material that you post on any Practice Website.

Downloading Content.  The JSM Practices grant you a revocable, nontransferable, nonexclusive license to download copies of articles, contact information and other Content, solely for your individual or internal business use; provided, that you do not: (a) remove any copyright notice, trademark notice or other intellectual property notice from any copy of any Content, or (b) accept any consideration in exchange for any Content, or for services provided using any Content (including legal services) to any third party.

Links to Practice Websites. JSM Practices grant you a revocable, nontransferable, nonexclusive license to include a hyperlink on your own website to the home page of any Practice Website; provided, that you do not: (a) “deep link” to any other page of any Practice Website, (b) “frame” any Practice Website or any Content, or otherwise cause any Practice Website or any Content to appear in a window with any other material, (c) cause the hyperlink or the Practice Website to be displayed in any way that is disparaging to any JSM Practice, or (d) otherwise imply or state that any type of relationship or special arrangements exist with any JSM Practice, that have not been approved in writing by the JSM Practices. You agree that you will promptly remove any hyperlink to any Practice Website upon written request from any JSM Practice to do so. In no event will you use JSM’s logo or any other trademark as a hyperlink “button” or in any manner without JSM’s express written consent.

Indemnification. The JSM Practices provide the Practice Websites, Content and Services solely as an accommodation to you, and the JSM Practices will not accept any risks arising from your use thereof. As such, you will indemnify, defend and hold harmless each JSM Practice and their respective partners, employees, vendors and agents, from and against any and all claims that arise from or relate to: (a) your use of any Practice Website, Content or Service; (b) the JSM Practices’ use of any message-board posting, information or other material that you upload or send to, or post on, any Practice Website; or (c) your breach of any provision of this Agreement.

Intellectual Property

Practice Content. All of the Content, including, without limitation, all text, graphics, video and sounds on any Practice Website, and all computer code associated therewith, are the valuable proprietary property of the JSM Practices, its licensors and contributors, and are subject to copyright, trademark and other intellectual property protection. You acknowledge and agree that the JSM Practices have expended substantial time and effort to create each Practice Website, and the Content and Services provided through each Practice Website, and that JSM Practices exclusively owns, or has been licensed by third parties to use and sublicense all rights, title and interest therein and all associated information, data, databases, images and other material.

License to Use Your Public Postings. With respect to any message-board posting, article or other material that you upload, post, email or otherwise transmit to a publicly available Practice Website, you hereby grant to the JSM Practices and each  of them a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to use, copy and publish such material on a Practice Website and elsewhere; provided, that the JSM Practices will adhere to the provisions of the privacy notice with respect to your personally identifiable information. Where information is provided in confidential circumstances this provision shall not apply.

Limitations of Liability

NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES. EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY ANY APPLICABLE MANDATORY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL ANY JSM PRACTICE , OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE PARTNERS, EMPLOYEES, VENDORS OR AGENTS, BE LIABLE WITH RESPECT TO THIS AGREEMENT, ANY PRACTICE WEBSITE, ANY CONTENT OR ANY SERVICE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, RELIANCE, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OPPORTUNITY, SAVINGS OR INTEREST, OR ANY PENALTIES OR ASSESSMENTS IMPOSED UNDER APPLICABLE TAX LAWS OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF THE JSM PRACTICES, OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE PARTNERS, EMPLOYEES, VENDORS OR AGENTS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE LIKELIHOOD THEREOF.

AGGREGATE LIABILITY. EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY ANY APPLICABLE MANDATORY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE JSM PRACTICES OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE PARTNERS, EMPLOYEES, VENDORS AND AGENTS WITH RESPECT TO ALL CLAIMS ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT, ALL PRACTICE WEBSITES, ALL CONTENT AND ALL SERVICES EXCEED AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO ONE HUNDRED HONG KONG DOLLARS.

MANDATORY APPLICABLE LAWS. THE PRECEDING CLAUSES SHALL NOT APPLY TO THE EXTENT THAT ANY LIABILITY MAY NOT BE EXCLUDED UNDER APPLICABLE MANDATORY LAWS. THE EXTENT OF THIS EXCEPTION IF ANY WILL DEPEND ON THE COUNTRY IN WHICH YOU RESIDE AND THE CAPACITY IN WHICH YOU USE THE PRACTICE WEBSITES.

Miscellaneous

Jurisdiction. This Agreement will be governed by the laws of Hong Kong.  You agree to submit irrevocably to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Hong Kong Courts over any case or controversy arising from or relating to this Agreement, a Practice Website or any Services.

Assignment. Your rights and obligations under this Agreement are personal to you and may not be assigned to any other party.

Force Majeure. JSM and any of the JSM Practices will not be deemed to be in breach of this Agreement for any failure or delay in performance caused by reasons beyond its reasonable control, including any natural calamity, act of God or a public enemy, act of any military, civil or regulatory authority, change in any law or regulation, disruption or outage of communications, power or other, failure to perform by any supplier or other third party, or any other cause beyond the reasonable control of any JSM Practice.

Waiver. The JSM Practices will not, be deemed to have waived any breach by you of this Agreement, except by a written waiver expressly so stating, and such waiver will not be construed as a waiver of subsequent or continued breaches.

Severability. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability will be limited to the maximum extent permissible, and the other provisions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect.

Complete Understanding. This Agreement constitutes the final and complete agreement between the parties regarding the subject matter hereof, and supersedes any prior or contemporaneous communications, representations or agreements between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof.

“Johnson Stokes & Master”, “JSM” and the JSM logo are trademarks of JSM.

Definitions

These Acceptable Use Policies and Terms of Use govern use of all websites, blogs, apps and social media platforms owned or controlled by  any JSM Practice (collectively, “Practice Websites”), including all content provided on, or through access to, any Practice Website (“Content”) and all services provided through any Practice Website (“Services”). References to “Agreement” are references to these Acceptable Use Policies and Terms of Use and the disclaimer. JSM and JSM Practices are defined on the legal notices page.