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HATCHWISE / GEEKFACE LLC

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Hatchwise is owned and operated by Geekface LLC. Hatchwise.com (hereafter described as “Hatchwise” “Us” “Our” “We”) provides the following terms and conditions for users (“You”, “Your”) of this site (Hatchwise.com).

By signing up as a client of Hatchwise or using the Hatchwise.com site, you agree to be legally bound by these conditions. Please read these terms carefully. Hatchwise may change these terms at anytime by updating this posting. You should visit this page periodically to review these conditions, as they are binding to you.

This document is for both Designers and Contest Holders, certain sections are addressed to one or the other, please see context to figure out if it is referring to you.

Definitions used throughout this document and throughout the Hatchwise site, including any email generated by the Hatchwise site or Hatchwise Staff:
1. “Creative”, “Designer”, “Writer”: An individual or business who submits creative material to projects on Hatchwise.
2. “Contest Holder”, “Project Holder”, “Session Holder”, “Client:: An individual or business who has posted a project at Hatchwise.com
3. “Contest”, “Project”, “Session”: A creative project, including but not limited to Writing, Naming, or Graphic Design.
4. “Entry”, “Design”: A creative entry (written or designed) submitted to a project by a creative.
5. “Winner”: An entry that has been selected as the winner of a project
6. “Budget” “Award”, “Prize”: An amount specified by the contest holder.

You acknowledge and agree that Hatchwise.com shall have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion, to pre-screen, refuse or remove any project and/or user provided content that violates these Terms and Conditions or is otherwise objectionable, including, without limitation, projects or content that is illegal, obscene, indecent, defamatory, incites religious, racial or ethnic hatred, or violates the rights of others. Activity that is brought to our attention which appears in our sole judgment to violate the law will be brought to the attention of the proper authorities. You acknowledge, consent and agree that Hatchwise.com may access, preserve, and disclose your account information and content if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to:

(a) comply with legal process;

(b) enforce these Terms and Conditions;

(c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties;

(d) respond to your requests for customer service; or

(e) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Hatchwise.com, its users and the public.

Hatchwise strives to be a family friendly site, and as such, retains the right to refuse and refund, at our discretion, any projects or content that is:

a. Explicitly Adult in nature, or deemed inappropriate by Hatchwise
b. illegal, obscene, indecent, defamatory, incites religious, racial or ethnic hatred, or violates the rights of other

Each party acknowledges that the other party has entered into this Agreement relying on the limitations of liability stated herein and that those limitations are an essential basis of the bargain between the parties. Without limiting the foregoing and except for payment obligations, neither party shall have any liability for any failure or delay resulting from any condition beyond the reasonable control of such party, including but not limited to governmental action or acts of terrorism, earthquake or other acts of God, labor conditions, power failures, or website outages.

By making an award payment , prepaying the full budget amount for their project (not including the listing fee or any upgrades for the listing), or making a purchase of any design or writing entry on the site, Clients are purchasing Hatchwise Credits at a ratio of 1 credit to 1 US Dollar. Any payment made is non-refundable. All transactions between clients and creatives are made in Hatchwise Credits. Hatchwise Credits are purchased by clients when they pay or prepay their project budget at a rate of 1 Credit to 1 US Dollar. Amounts listed as “prizes” or “awards” are the US Dollar value of the credits on offer. Awarded amounts will be paid to winning creatives in Hatchwise Credits. Hatchwise Credits are not legal tender and cannot be traded or sold to third parties.

1. PERSONAL INFORMATION: You are solely responsible for the privacy of the information used to login to your account and Hatchwise is not responsible in any way for misuse of your account or for payment being sent to the wrong person due to illegal access to your account by individuals using your login information. Hatchwise reserves the right to freeze or hold payment on any funds owed to your account due to suspicious activity.

Regarding Contest Holders: Your full name may be displayed on Hatchwise along with your contest, the rest of any personal information provided during the registration process, such as address and phone number, are used only for internal purposes by Hatchwise.

Regarding Creatives: Your full name, Country, and Sex may be displayed on Hatchwise along with your contest, the rest of any registered information, such as address and phone number are used only for internal purposes by Hatchwise with the exception of the following: Hatchwise reserves the right to provide a Creative’s registered contact information (including Full Name, Phone, Address etc.) to a Contest Holder who has selected that Creative’s entry a the winning entry, once the Contest Holder has paid the pre-determined amount in full, this is intended to provide the Contest Holder the ability to contact the Creative if they wish to hire them for future work, or if any questions of Entry originality arise.

2. OWNERSHIP OF SUBMITTED ENTRIES:  Any submitted entries remains the full property of the individual who has submitted it unless the entry has been selected as the contest “winner” and the project payment has been made in full, with that exception at no time may anyone except the submitting designer use, save, modify or display the artwork without the express permission of the designer, with the following exception.

Hatchwise reserves the right to display any entry, winning or otherwise, in any advertising material (including the Hatchwise website) intended to promote the Hatchwise.com service.

3. CLIENT RESPONSIBILITY REGARDING ENTRIES: You agree that you will have no ownership whatsoever of any submitted creative material, until you have selected a submitted entry as a “winner” and paid the budget for it in full. At that time, the Creative agrees (see section below) to transfer to you a royalty-free, irrevocable exclusive worldwide right to use “completed creative material” in any way whatsoever. The creative retains the rights to display the winning entry in their portfolio and advertising as an example of the work they do. All entries NOT selected as a winner remain the full property of the submitting creatives.

You agree that if you do not select a winner within 24 days of starting a contest the contest will be closed and you will no longer have the option of selecting a winner.

You understand that Hatchwise reserves the right to speak to the individual responsible for starting the project (or the account holder of the method of payment used to make any payments, if Hatchwise wishes) prior to authorizing the upload of any completed artwork.

You also agree that any attempt to bypass the awarding of a prepaid budget by entering your own project as a creative is strictly prohibited, and is grounds for immediate account and contest termination, with no option for a refund. You may not, under any circumstances, participate in a contest that you or someone you know is running.

Hatchwise is simply the “middle man” between you and the Creatives participating on the Hatchwise.com website. You hereby acknowledge that Hatchwise shall have no obligation or duty to perform trademark, service mark or copyright searches or inquiries, or the like, in order to validate the propriety or legality of any submitted entry. Accordingly, you are encouraged to perform your own independent searches with regard to any submitted entries before selecting a “winner”. Furthermore, you acknowledge that Hatchwise shall have no responsibility or obligation of any kind to assist you in seeking state or federal intellectual property protection (i.e., without limitation, trademark or copyright registration) for the winning entry, nor shall Hatchwise be responsible for otherwise assisting you in any way in your attempt to perfect your rights in or to the completed entry. You also agree that Hatchwise is in no way responsible for assuring the originality of any creative work delivered, and that it is your full responsibility to research all creative work received by you before using it in any way. Hatchwise is in no way responsible for any legal or financial difficulty of any kind incurred by using any service purchased through Hatchwise.

4. DESIGNER RESPONSIBILITY REGARDING ENTRIES: You retain all rights to any submitted creative material that has not been selected as a winner. By submitting entries to a contest you agree that if a contest holder selects your entry and makes payment of the project budget in full you will transfer to the contest holder a royalty-free, irrevocable exclusive worldwide right to use “completed creative material” in any way whatsoever, you (the creative) retain the rights to display the work in your portfolio and advertising as an example of the work you do. You also agree that if your entry is chosen as a “winner” that you will upload a zip file containing either the layered source file for the artwork, as well as any file formats that Hatchwise requests (for design related projects), or the completed creative material (writing and naming projects).

In the event that a contest holder selects your entry as a “winner” and fails to make payment of the project budget you will retain full rights to the entry.

5. SUBMITTING ENTRIES TO THE SITE: 

Creatives: No entries may be submitted that you did not create 100% from scratch and are your own unique creation and contain (to the best of your knowledge) no copyright or trademarked images or symbols in them. The only exception to this would be if the Contest Holder has requested you to include a specific existing design that they hold the rights to in your entry. Submitting a entries that does not follow the above requirements is reason for immediate account closure and indefinite freezing of any funds in the offending Creative’s account.

Contest Holders: You also agree that any attempt to bypass the completing of a project by entering your own contest as a creative is strictly prohibited, and is grounds for immediate account and contest termination, with no option for a refund. You may not, under any circumstances, participate in a contest that you or someone you know is running.

6. REFUNDS: 

For our refund policy as of 11/22/2019 please see https://www.hatchwise.com/guarantee

Refund policies prior to 11/22/2019:

With the exceptions stated below, fees paid to Hatchwise are Non-Refundable, this includes the fee to start a contest, as well as any fees paid to upgrade or promote a contest. Any payments made to Hatchwise are non refundable, if the client chooses to prepay the contest budget/prize they are agreeing that the total cash amount of the payment is non-refundable. In the case that a prepaid budget/prize is not used (the contest holder does not select a winner), the payment will NOT be refunded, and Hatchwise will choose, in their sole discretion, what to do with the money.

a. Money Back Guarantee For Select Logo Design Packages: For select logo design packages (labeled as such) we guarantee that you will receive at least the amount of entries that the design package you purchase includes or we will refund 100% of the prize portion of the payment (100% of the total payment including listing fees and upgrades for packages purchased after 2/1/2018.)

b. Details: Our money back guarantee applies to the following logo design packages purchased after 1/1/2017: 7 Designs minimum, 40+ Designs, 85+ Designs, 150+ Designs, 270+ Designs and the following logo packages purchased after 2/1/2018: 30+ Logos, 70+ Logos, 130+ Logos, 270+ Logos (full refund of the total payment if the below conditions are met) Eligible projects must run a full ten days (2 days for rush projects) and Hatchwise reserves the right to reopen a project and extend it an additional ten days at no charge to the client in order to provide the required number of entries. All entries must be rated by the client and written feedback provided to at least 50% of all entries received. The listing fee, any upgrade fees paid, as well as an contest extension fees paid are non-refundable. With the exceptions stated above only the prize portion of the fees charged to start a contest is eligible for a refund for the packages purchased prior to 2/1/2017. If a contest is refunded the contest will be closed and will be permanently inaccessible to the client. The client is not allowed to select a winning design for refunded projects. Refund must be requested in writing within 14 days of the project ending (unless it has been extended within ten days of the submission period ending, in which case an additional ten days to request a refund is allowed) and all requirements must be met at that time, if the customer does not meet the above requirements then they are not eligible for a refund and Hatchwise will choose, in their sole discretion, what to do with any funds.

7. CHARGEBACKS AND PAYPAL DISPUTES: You agree not to file a chargeback or open a PayPal Dispute for any reason. Any PayPal Disputes or chargeback issues are turned over to an external collection agency and may be pursued to the full extent of the law.

8. PAYMENT FOR DESIGNERS: Hatchwise is not an escrow service and does not hold property on behalf of any person. All amounts deposited or paid to Hatchwise are property of Hatchwise and Hatchwise may use those funds as it sees fit. The only rights that you have to receive payment of any amounts held by Hatchwise are as set out in these Terms and Conditions.

Upon a submitted entry being selected as a “winning entry”, the contest holder making payment of the total budget, and successful uploading of the required files you shall have the total amount of the budget, minus the current “Admin Fee” (listed at http://www.Hatchwise.com/contest-pricing) credited to your account with Hatchwise.

All transactions between clients and creatives are made in Hatchwise Credits. Hatchwise Credits are purchased by clients when the pay or prepay their project budget at a rate of 1 Credit to 1 US Dollar. Amounts listed as “prizes” or “awards” are the US Dollar value of the credits on offer. Awarded amounts will be paid to winning creatives in Hatchwise Credits. Hatchwise Credits are not legal tender and cannot be traded or sold to third parties. The balance of any Hatchwise Credits held by you may be reduced at any time by Hatchwise for charge-backs or refunds, or for any amount owing by you to Hatchwise, to compensate Hatchwise for any loss that it determines (in its sole discretion) it has suffered as a result of any breach of this Agreement by you. Provided that you are not in breach of this Agreement and your Account is not suspended, and that a hold has not been placed upon your account, Hatchwise will credit your Hatchwise account the total of credits that are owed to you upon you uploading completed artwork for a project that you were awarded for.

When your account is credited, the total amount of credits is automatically converted to US Dollars at a ratio of 1:1. Your account will reflect the balance in US Dollars. Hatchwise is not an escrow service and does not hold property on behalf of any person. All amounts deposited or paid to Hatchwise are property of Hatchwise and Hatchwise may use those funds as it sees fit. The only rights that you have to receive payment of any amounts held by Hatchwise are as set out in these Terms and Conditions.

The full amount in your Hatchwise account (Awards minus the current Admin Fee) shall be sent by Hatchwise on the 1st and 14th (or first business day thereafter if the date falls on a Weekend or US National Holiday) of every calendar month via the PayPal service.

Hatchwise reserves the right to hold payment for up to 6 months for any reason. You must have a valid and current PayPal account to receive payment. In the event the Agreement is terminated, Hatchwise shall pay your earned balance to you within approximately ninety (90) days after the end of the calendar month in which the Agreement is terminated by you (following Hatchwise’s receipt of your written request, including by email, to terminate the Agreement) or by Hatchwise. In no event, however, shall Hatchwise make payments for any earned balance less than the minimum amount allowable by the Hatchwise service.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, Hatchwise shall not be liable for any payment based on: (a) any amounts which result from stolen or copyright winning entries, as reasonably determined by Hatchwise or any payment record that Hatchwise find to be fraudulent.

Hatchwise reserves the right to withhold payment or charge back your account due to any of the foregoing or any breach of this Agreement by you, pending Hatchwise’s reasonable investigation, or in the event that an Contest Holder who is responsible for the payment defaults on payment for the designs to Hatchwise. In addition, if you are past due on any payment to Hatchwise in connection with the Hatchwise Service, Hatchwise reserves the right to withhold payment until all outstanding payments have been made or to offset amounts owed to you in connection with the Service by amounts owed by you to Hatchwise. To ensure proper payment, you are solely responsible for providing and maintaining accurate contact and payment information associated with your account. You agree to pay all applicable taxes or charges imposed by any government entity in connection with your participation in the Service.

Hatchwise may change its pricing and/or payment structure at any time.

Hatchwise requires that you provide certain information (including but not limited to full name, address etc..) before any payments will be made.

If you dispute any payment made under the Service, you must notify Hatchwise in writing within thirty (30) days of any such payment; failure to so notify Hatchwise shall result in the waiver by you of any claim relating to any such disputed payment.

Payment shall be calculated solely based on records maintained by Hatchwise. No other measurements or statistics of any kind shall be accepted by Hatchwise or have any effect under this Agreement.

The payments made under this Agreement are for use by you only and may not be transferred or in any manner passed on to any third party unless expressly authorized in writing by Hatchwise (including by electronic mail).

Any breach of this agreement is grounds for permanent freezing of any outstanding balance.

Hatchwise reserves the right to manually verify your payment information before making payment. Hatchwise will make every reasonable effort to contact you via phone and email to verify your account using, among other methods, the verification of your birth date or the last 4 digits of your social security number. If you are unable to verify the records that Hatchwise holds the funds may be frozen and payment may be held until further verification is received, including, but not limited to photocopies of your drivers license. You agree that these Hatchwise is not responsible for any funds that are sent to an incorrect PayPal account.

9. NO WARRANTY: Hatchwise MAKES NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WITH RESPECT TO ADVERTISING, CODE, POSTS, EMAIL, OR OTHER SERVICES, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS THE WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

10. LIMITATIONS ON LIABILITY, FORCE MAJEURE:
EXCEPT FOR ANY INDEMNIFICATION AND CONFIDENTIALITY OBLIGATIONS HEREUNDER OR YOUR BREACH OF ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND/OR PROPRIETARY INTERESTS RELATING TO THE SERVICE, (i) IN NO EVENT SHALL EITHER PARTY BE LIABLE UNDER THIS AGREEMENT FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF SUCH PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY AND (ii) Hatchwise’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO ANY CREATIVES OR COMPANIES OUTSOURCING THEIR WORK TO Hatchwise.

Hatchwise IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LOSS OR THEFT OF ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION OF PERSONS REGISTERED AT HTTP://WWW.Hatchwise.COM DUE TO THE Hatchwise WEBSITE, SCRIPT OR DATABASE BEING HACKED, DAMAGED, OR ILLEGALLY ACCESSED.

11. Miscellaneous Provisions:

(a) Entire Agreement. These Terms and Conditions set forth the entire agreement and understanding of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersede any and all prior oral or written agreements and understandings, and any and all contemporaneous oral agreements and understandings (excluding any associated agreements required by Hatchwise (e.g., privacy policy) as a condition precedent to Clients’ use of the Service), between you and Hatchwise regarding the subject matter of these Terms and Conditions.

(b) Amendment. No modification, amendment, or waiver of these Terms and Conditions or any part hereof shall be binding unless evidenced in writing and signed by Hatchwise.

(c) Severability. If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, void, or unenforceable, then such provision shall be deemed null and void, but the remaining provisions shall continue in full force without being impaired or invalidated in any way.

(d) Mutual Participation. The language of these Terms and Conditions shall be deemed to be the language mutually chosen by the parties and no rule of strict construction shall be applied against or in favor of either party hereto.

(e) Headings. The section headings and other headings contained herein shall not affect the meaning or interpretation of these Terms and Conditions.

(f) Choice of Law; Forum. These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the substantive law of the State of Connecticut, without reference to any choice of law rules that would result in the application of the substantive law of any other jurisdiction. The parties agree that any disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms and Conditions shall be submitted to the federal courts having jurisdiction in New London, Connecticut, or state courts having jurisdiction in the area in which such federal courts have jurisdiction, and the parties consent to the personal jurisdiction of such courts with respect to such disputes.

(g) Assignment. You may not assign or otherwise transfer (by operation of law or otherwise) any of your rights or duties hereunder unless Hatchwise agrees in writing after receiving prior written notice. Any attempted assignment or other transfer without the requisite consent shall be null and void ab initio. Hatchwise may assign or otherwise transfer any of its rights or the performance of any of its duties without your consent.

(h) Waiver. The waiver by Hatchwise of a breach or a violation of any provision of these Terms and Conditions shall not operate as or be construed to be a waiver of any subsequent breach or violation of any provision of these Terms and Conditions.

(i) Independent Contractors. The parties and their respective personnel are and shall be independent contracts and neither party by virtue of these Terms and Conditions shall have any right, power or authority to act or create any obligation, express or implied, on behalf of the other party.

(j) Force Majeure. If the performance of any part of these Terms and Conditions by either party is prevented, hindered, delayed or otherwise made impracticable by reason of any flood, riot, fire, judicial or governmental action, labor disputes, act of God or any other causes beyond the control of either party, that party shall be excused from such to the extent that such performance is prevented, hindered or delayed by such causes.

(k) Capacity. The parties hereby warrant and represent that they have all necessary rights and authority to execute these Terms and Conditions and to fulfill their obligations hereunder.

(l) We do in some instances give you a phone call once a winner is awarded in order to verify your contest and allow the designer to upload the files. This usually takes less than 48 hours unless a holiday is involved and then it may take longer.

(m) Further Assurances. The parties hereto shall, at their own cost and expenses, execute and deliver such other documents, artwork, programming code and instruments and shall take such other action as may reasonably be required or appropriate to evidence or carry out the intent and purposes of these Terms and Conditions.