Terms of service

Last updated: 21/04/2023

By accessing and using the services provided by PubCompare.ai (“PubCompare”), you agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not use or access the services in any manner.

These Terms govern the relationship between Biowebspin SA, operating PubCompare, a Swiss company registered at Espace des Remparts 10, 1950, Sion under number CHE134209171 (“Company, “PubCompare”, “we” or “us”) and the Person who accepts these Terms of Service when registering for a PubCompare Plan on our Website (“Customer”, “you” or “your”), together referred as the parties.

By using PubCompare, you accept that you are part of an early phase of the platform, and acknowledge the evolving nature of the service. Your understanding and patience with any adjustments or improvements during this phase are greatly appreciated.

We are committed to continuous improvement and may update these Terms of Service from time to time to reflect changes in our services, user feedback, or legal requirements. These updates are essential to enhance your user experience and the overall functionality of our platform. We will make reasonable efforts to notify you of significant changes, but we encourage you to review the Terms periodically. Your continued use of PubCompare after any such updates take effect will constitute your agreement to such changes.

As a valued user, your feedback is invaluable to us. Your experiences, observations, and suggestions will help shape the future of PubCompare. Thank you for being part of our journey to revolutionize scientific research methodology access and comparison.

Certain Customers, including research labs, academic institutions, or commercial entities (“Organizational Customers”), may also register for a PubCompare Plan by entering into a separate order confirmation (an “Order Confirmation”) which incorporates these Terms of Service or specific terms that supercedes these terms when in conflict. These Terms of Service, the Order Confirmation (if any) and documents or links referenced herein are together referred to as the “Agreement”.

The Service offers scientists the ability to identify and compare scientific protocols from various publications and other sources such as but not limited to Patents, preprints, Application notes, etc. You may use the Service only in accordance with these Terms and all applicable laws and regulations of Switzerland. The laws of Switzerland will govern over any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and PubCompare or its affiliates.

User Account for PubCompare: A User Account is required to access and utilize PubCompare’s platform. User Accounts can only be created through verified email addresses.

Responsibility for User Account: You are responsible for compliance with these Terms and any activity occurring under your User Account. You must not share your User Account with any other person and must promptly notify PubCompare of any actual or suspected unauthorized use of the platform through your User Account.

User Restrictions: Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you will not, and will not permit any other person to:

• Use PubCompare’s platform other than as permitted by this Agreement;
• Disable, overly burden, impair, or otherwise interfere with servers or networks connected to PubCompare’s platform;
• Use PubCompare’s platform to upload, collect, transmit, store, use, disclose, or process any data in a manner that violates any applicable laws or infringes upon the rights of any third party;
• Use any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering or extraction methods, or attempt to modify or reverse engineer PubCompare’s platform;
• Use PubCompare’s platform for the purpose of building a similar or competitive product or service.

The Service’s user interface and design, and any unique adaptations or customizations of existing models for extracting and sorting protocols, are the property of the Company, where applicable, and may be protected by international copyright laws. Any underlying models or technologies utilized by the Service that are publicly available or licensed from third parties are acknowledged as the intellectual property of their respective owners.

The scientific protocols, titles, authors, abstracts, and other content extracted from open-access publications or linked from paywalled content are the intellectual property of their respective owners. PubCompare respects the intellectual property rights of others and provides these materials for the purpose of scientific comparison, in accordance with applicable copyright and fair use laws.

Users of the Service must comply with all applicable copyright laws in their use of the extracted or linked content and must not use such content in a manner that infringes upon the intellectual property rights of the original authors or publishers.

Your use of the Service is subject to our Privacy Policy, available here.

The Company reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. Any changes will be posted on this page, and your continued use of the Service constitutes acceptance of those changes.

7.1 Fees and Subscriptions

Paid Accounts

Free trial: we provide a 5-day long free trial.

Billing.

PubCompare processes subscription payments with. Customers will be redirected to the Stripe’s customer portal where subscription can be created and managed. Please refer to Stripe end-user T&Cs https://stripe.com/en-ch/legal/consumer.

A valid credit card is required for the Paid Plan subscriptions. Your credit card statement will show a payment to “PubCompare.ai” and/or “Biowebspin SA”.

Payments are denominated in EUR and may be presented in USD based on your IP location.

The Service is billed on a monthly basis and is non-refundable. There will be no refunds or credits for partial months of service. The Service is a subscription and will automatically renew each month.

Free trial is available for 5 days once a subscription is created. Free trial ends after 5 days and your credit card will be automatically charged, unless you terminated your subscription before the activation.

Customers will not be charged for Seats while they are on the free trial period.

Biowebspin SA is a company registered in Switzerland, subscriptions include a 8,1% VAT taxes.

If you choose to cancel your subscription, we are not liable for the resulting loss of content, features, or capacity. The cancellation will take effect at the end of your current billing cycle. No refunds or partial refunds for the Service will be given for that billing period.

Accounts can be requested to be cancelled at any time from the Manage Subscription – Stripe Customer Portal page.

PubCompare is not responsible for additional charges that may occur from additional service provided before your cancellation takes effect and PubCompare is not responsible for additional charges that may occur if you do not cancel your account properly.

In the event that PubCompare is unable to collect payment from the card attached to your account, PubCompare will automatically retry the card for 3 consecutive days. If payment is not received within 3 days, PubCompare reserves the right to immediately downgrade your account on day 3 of non-payment, or at the end of the current subscription period.

If you signed up to a 5-day free trial period for one of our Paid PubCompare Plans, after conclusion of the free trial period, you expressly authorize us to charge you any Fees and related taxes for the Initial Term commencing on the date your free trial period ends.

Cancellation. You can cancel your subscription at any time by logging into your PubCompare.ai account to access the stripe portal. You can downgrade your account from Bench to individual, Bench to free user or from individual to free user. After downgrading or cancelling your subscription you will no longer renew and you will not be charged again. Users benefiting from a “Bench” licence that do not own the main account will be downgraded to Free users automatically.

Changes. We may change our prices from time to time. If we increase our subscription prices, your legacy subscription will remain unchanged. New prices will apply if you suspend and restart your subscription or miss a payment.

Refund Policy: If you believe your case warrants a refund due to a bug or error in our product/service, we request that you send an email to our support team and provide a demonstration of the issue. This policy allows us to address and resolve any potential errors, ensuring that our products/services remain at the highest standard.

To initiate this process, please contact our support team at contact@pubcompare.ai.

7.2. Freemium Version and Sponsorships

Freemium Services:

User Authorization: By using the freemium version of PubCompare’s services, you acknowledge and agree that PubCompare may commercialize your use of the platform, including but not limited to sharing non-personally identifiable usage data with sponsors, displaying sponsored content, and sending you email communications. PubCompare will never sell directly your contact info to any third party organization.

Transparency: PubCompare maintains a commitment to provide unbiased services and transparency by clearly identify sponsored content and relationships with Lab Equipment companies or other sponsors within the platform. Any data shared with sponsors will be in compliance with PubCompare’s Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws. Users will have the opportunity to review and understand the nature of these relationships.

Opt-out Options: Sponsorships allow to provide users a free version of PubCompare. If you do not wish for your usage data to be utilized for commercial purposes, you may have the option to delete your account, or you may choose to upgrade to a paid subscription plan that does not include sponsored content.

Customer Warranty: users guarantee that any personal information provided to us has been collected and shared according to applicable laws and obtained permissions to use this information as required.

General Disclaimer: The PubCompare Platform is provided “as is” without any promises or warranties. We don’t guarantee that it will always work perfectly or that all errors will be corrected. We can not assure that the information provided on the platform will always be accurate or reliable.

No Endorsement of Third-Party Content and Suppliers: Links to third-party content and suppliers of Materials and products do not mean PubCompare endorses or guarantees the quality of their content and/or offerings. You use these third-party services at your own risk.

Indemnity: If something goes wrong due to your data, your use of the PubCompare’s Platform, your breach of this agreement, any misrepresentation or negligence on your part, or any violation of others’ rights, you agree to protect PubCompare against any damages or costs that may arise.

In no event will PubCompare’s total liability for any matters related to this agreement exceed CHF 100. This maximum amount will not increase even if there are multiple claims. PubCompare’s third-party affiliates or suppliers will not bear any liability connected to this agreement.

PubCompare will not be liable for any direct, indirect, special or unforeseen damages, lost savings, profits, data, or goodwill; interruptions to business, or other intangible losses ; costs for replacement products or services; personal injury or death; or damage to personal or property related to this agreement, regardless of the cause or legal theory resulting from the use or the inability to use the Service.
This includes any damages arising from failed experiments, wasted materials, or costs incurred as a result of using or relying on any protocols or information obtained from the Service. The Service is provided on an “as-is” basis and makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability with respect to the scientific protocols or other content on the Service. Your use of the Service and reliance on any information provided therein is strictly at your own risk.

Effective Period: This agreement starts on the date you agree to it and continues until either party ends it according to these terms.

Violation of Terms: If you breach any of the terms of this agreement, PubCompare has the right to immediately disable your access and terminate this agreement.

Termination for Convenience: Either you or PubCompare can end this agreement at any time. If you are an individual user and wish to terminate, simply delete your account; please note that any fees paid for a subscription plan are non-refundable. If PubCompare decides to terminate the agreement, we will notify you in advance, and if applicable, reimburse you on a pro-rata basis for any unused portion of your subscription.

Survival: Certain sections of this agreement will continue to apply even after termination. These include sections on intellectual property rights, confidentiality, disclaimers, limitations of liability, and other essential provisions.

Effects of Termination: Upon termination, all rights granted to you under this agreement will cease, and you must stop all access and use of the services. Any obligations or liabilities incurred prior to termination will remain in effect.

English Language: It is the express wish of the Parties that this Agreement and all related documents be drawn up in English.

Governing Law: These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Switzerland, without regard to its conflict of law principles.

Force Majeure: Neither party shall be liable for any failure or delay in performance under this agreement due to circumstances beyond its reasonable control,

including but not limited to acts of God, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, fire, earthquakes, floods, strikes, or power outages.

Severability: If any provision of this agreement is found to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be severed from this agreement, and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect, so as to effectuate the intent of the parties.

Waiver: No failure or delay by either party in exercising any right under this agreement shall constitute a waiver of that right. A waiver must be in writing and signed by the party granting the waiver.

Independent Contractors: The parties are independent contractors and nothing in this agreement shall be construed to create a partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship between them.

Entire Agreement: This Agreement represents the complete understanding between the parties regarding its subject matter, unless expressly modified by a separate written document duly executed by both parties. This Agreement supersedes all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, representations, and warranties, both written and oral, related to such subject matter.

Electronic Execution: The parties agree that this agreement may be electronically signed, and that electronic signatures appearing on this agreement are the same as handwritten signatures for the purposes of validity, enforceability, and admissibility.

For any questions or concerns regarding these Terms, please contact us via the contact form.