Terms of Engagement
The following are our standard Terms of Business upon which we shall carry out all professional work on your behalf. These provisions are designed to assist us in providing you with an efficient and effective service and will form the basis of our on-going relationship.
General:
This statement sets out our standard terms of business for providing legal services and is in addition to any engagement letter that we may have with you as our client. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, these terms represent our agreement with you. We would ask that you review this statement carefully and contact us promptly should you have any questions.
Our Client:
We accept instructions from you, our client, and you are responsible for the payment of all our charges, even if you represent a third party. By agreement, we may accept instructions from another party, for example a related company, but unless we agree otherwise you will remain wholly responsible for our charges.
Fees:
You are responsible for the payment of all costs incurred in pursuance of your instructions. These may include our charges (both charges for time taken by professional staff and standard charges), Patent Office fees, foreign attorneys’ fees, search costs, translation costs, travel expenses, photocopying, telephone and facsimile costs, and courier charges. Where required, VAT will be added at the prevailing rate.
Payments in Advance and Estimates:
You may be asked to deposit funds with us as an advance payment for work to be undertaken. In the event that it appears that our fees and other charges will exceed the balance of the amount deposited with us, then we may request an additional advance. Unused balances of any advance payments will be refunded to you when the relevant matter has been concluded. On request, we may provide an estimate of likely costs. However, such estimates are for guidance only and final charges may be higher or lower than the estimates. We will inform you if we become aware that such estimates are likely to be inaccurate.
Instructions:
We expect that you will take careful note of any deadlines given in our correspondence. Failure to meet such deadlines may result in loss of rights or incur additional costs. If we do not receive written instructions in good time we shall take the absence of those instructions as an implicit instruction not to take action.
Instructions to us should be in writing. We may accept oral or emailed instructions, but clients should ensure that we have received and understood such instructions in good time before any due dates. We cannot accept responsibility for acting on instructions sent by e-mail or other means that fail to arrive. We shall have no liability for any misunderstanding or misinterpretation on either side resulting from oral instructions. Oral advice or views expressed by us by telephone should be regarded as being only a preliminary opinion. No action should be taken without obtaining a written opinion from us after a full consideration of the facts.
Our offices are open from 9.15am to 5pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays. Mail, faxes and e-mail received after these hours will not, without prior arrangement, receive attention until the next working day.
Instruction of Third Parties to act on your Behalf:
In carrying out your instructions, it may be necessary for us to instruct third parties (e.g. foreign attorneys, solicitors, search firms) to act on your behalf. You are entitled to select such third parties or you may allow us to select them. In either case, you accept that such third parties are not part of this firm and that we are not liable for any losses or costs arising as a result of any default or negligence on the part of such third parties.
Confidentiality:
Any information given to us that might reasonably be expected to be of a confidential nature, or that you inform us is confidential, will be treated as such. Information and materials given to us will be kept under conditions of normal office security.
Terms of Payment:
Payment of our invoices is due within thirty days of the date of the invoice, unless otherwise agreed in writing. We reserve the right to charge interest on any amount not settled within thirty days (at a rate no higher than that set by the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act of 1998, as amended or superseded). We may agree a credit limit with you. In the event of you having an overdue account, or an account which exceeds the credit limit, we have the right to cease any further work for you even if this results in the loss of your rights.
Termination:
Our services may be terminated either by you or by us by sending notice in writing, such termination to become operative from the date of receipt of that notice. A fee note will be rendered for any outstanding charges.
Disputes:
We expect our business relationship with you to run smoothly but if any problems arise which cannot be resolved between you and your usual contact at Elkington and Fife LLP then you may refer the matter to a member who has not been involved with your work (normally Diana Kyle). If after this you remain dissatisfied, you should contact the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, which will consider your complaint.
Retention of information:
Our files both in paper and electronic form and their contents will remain our property at all times. Copies may be provided, but we reserve the right to make a charge for copying and to withhold any documents that we regard as being confidential. Following the closure of a file, it may be destroyed after an appropriate period. We retain copyright and other rights in documentation prepared by us.
Exclusion of Liability:
The firm Elkington and Fife LLP alone is responsible for the performance of its obligations to you and you agree that no liability whatsoever shall attach to the members of the firm, its employees or its consultants arising out of the engagement.
Transfer of Work:
If instructed to transfer work to another firm, we are normally willing to make the contents of our files available to the new firm, but always provided that no payments are outstanding. We reserve the right to make a charge for copying the contents of files and to withhold any documents that we regard as being confidential.