Terms of Business
Some of Chas. Hude’s advisors are lawyers. Chas. Hude A/S is not a law firm, and is therefore not subject to the regulation applicable to law firms, nor is it supervised by the Attorney General. Reference is made to Chas. Hude A/S’ general terms of business.
Terms of Business
Our Terms of Business are the foundation for our good cooperation with you. The terms set up the guidelines for the services that Chas. Hude A/S provides to you unless otherwise agreed.
Ever since Chas. Hude was founded in 1896, Chas. Hude has been based on etiquette, which means that we apply a high ethical standard when relating to clients, each other and our surroundings and that we act responsibly.
Chas. Hude is a full-service IPR consultancy company providing overall consultancy within all aspects of IPR.
Vision
Being a leading expert and trusted advisor we add to the value of the client’s company in active cooperation with the client – and set new standards for the IPR industry.
Mission
Chas. Hude was founded in 1986 and is the optimal adviser for all innovative companies and professional advisers. We help our clients capitalize their assets and secure their IPR rights – both at the strategic and the operational level.
We have IPR and legal expertise especially within information and machine technology, software, life science and consumer goods.
We build on the expertise of our highly qualified employees supported by unique digital solutions. We exist for – and excel in – providing customized overall services.
1. Introduction and Scope of Services
We endeavour to provide our clients with the best advice and service within the field of IPR. We take great care to listen to our clients’ needs enabling us to provide the necessary advice at the right time and to the right extent.
Professional expertise, attention to detail and quality combined with a strong personal commitment to find the solutions are the qualities that characterize Chas. Hude.
Our basis is always strategic consulting. This means that IPR is more than protection of knowledge and innovation through rights such as patents, trademarks, designs, copyright and utility models. To us, IPR is also about using – and commercialising – technological inventions and business identifiers.
We have a large international network and cooperate with local attorneys in more than 150 countries. We work with these attorneys a.o. when representing you worldwide before national authorities. Our relationship with them has been developed through many years of cooperation and trust.
2. Instructions
On an ongoing basis, we agree on the nature of our IPR services and the scope of each task.
In order to meet official deadlines fixed by patent and trademark offices, we rely on you to supply us with timely, clear and complete instructions and information. Failure to meet official deadlines may result in irrevocable loss of rights. Chas. Hude shall not be held liable for any loss of rights incurred as a result of missing or insufficient instructions. We will notify you of all official deadlines and of the instructions required in this connection.
In cases where urgent action is required, we will commence our work based on oral instructions. However, we require written instructions or written confirmation when an application is to be withdrawn or lapse in cases where Chas. Hude is disbursing payment on your behalf, e.g. when filing new applications and instructing foreign associates to act in cases where local fees will be incurred.
On request, we will provide you with price estimates for our work. The estimates will be based on our current schedule of charges and on the current rates of exchange, and as they are estimates only, they shall not be binding. Matters beyond our control may affect the actual costs, and particularly when costs are based on hourly fees, the amount of work cannot always be predicted accurately. In such cases we will inform you hereof as soon as possible.
We will acknowledge your instructions in all cases.
3. Fees and Payment Terms
All our services are charged according to our current hourly rates. Chargeable services include e.g. all advice, telephone calls and correspondence regarding deadlines as well as handling of correspondence received by us in our capacity as your IPR attorneys.
We also re-invoice all disbursements, e.g. official fees, administrative fees and fees to our foreign associates.
Our payment terms are in general 30 days net from the invoice date.
If our credit conditions are not complied with, we will send reminders and reserve the right to claim interest in accordance with the Danish Renteloven (Interest Act). We also reserve the right to suspend all work on your cases until any outstanding invoices have been paid.
In certain cases, we require advance payments before we place an order.
We may also require the payment of advances to cover certain expenses, e.g. fees required by foreign patent and trademark authorities and expenses for work performed by our foreign partners.
To cover the work associated with the administration and financing of foreign currency outlays and to cover our risk, we charge a fee or percentage supplement for further invoicing. Due to this fee or percentage surcharge, VAT is charged on the invoiced amount.
4. Disclosure, Confidentiality and Insider Information
We undertake not to disclose to third parties any information produced or obtained by us in the course of our cooperation, except in the situations listed below.
We will keep all your business information confidential and undertake:
- to use your business information for the sole purpose of conducting our work on your behalf;
- to refrain from making any commercial use of your business information without your explicit written consent;
- to disclose your business information only to our employees, associates and authorities when this information is required to fulfil the task at hand.
The above confidentiality guidelines do not apply, or cease to apply, to any business information that:
- has been published;
- was already in our possession prior to its acquisition from you;
- was received from a third party who did not acquire it directly or indirectly from you.
All our employees are subject to special rules under current legislation prohibiting disclosure of insider information about listed companies and restricting trading of securities in listed companies.
All our employees are under duty of confidentiality, and all communication with us is kept confidential. We ensure that our employees follow the industry code of ethics and section 10 of the Danish Markedsføringsloven (Marketing Practices Act).
5. Files
Our files remain our property at any time.
6. E-mail Communication
Unless we receive instructions from you to the contrary, we will communicate with you primarily via e-mail.
E-mail security cannot be guaranteed due to transmission via a public network. Please let us know if you prefer not to use e-mail to exchange information, or if you wish that e-mails are encrypted.
7. Termination
Mutual cooperation can be terminated by either party at any time.
We reserve the right to terminate our cooperation in case of a possible conflict of interest.
In the event that our cooperation is terminated either by you or by us, we are entitled to payment of any fees, including disbursements and VAT, incurred up to the date of termination of the cooperation whether or not they have been invoiced.
If we are instructed by you to withdraw from your cases and to collect and transfer information or on a continuing basis assist a new agency, time spent in this regard will be charged.
8. Insurance and Liability for Damages
Chas. Hude A/S is subject to the general law of damages in Denmark, but has no liability for any loss of profits or other indirect losses that you may suffer. Our professional liability insurance covers our ordinary liability insurance as consultants. We are not responsible for our subcontractors.
9. Applicable Law and Jurisdiction
All of our services and the present terms of business are governed by Danish law.
The Danish courts have jurisdiction to settle any claim or dispute.
The present terms of business are valid as of 1 January 2018.
No material changes to the above terms and conditions are valid without the written consent from the Executive Board.