Terms and conditions of use

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1. Welcome

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1.1 Welcome to our site. These Terms of Use apply to your use of debono.network, Six-Thinking-Hats.com, deBono.com and LateralThinking.com (each a Site). The Sites are owned and operated by Edward de Bono Limited, trading as de Bono (we, us, our, as applicable).  For further information about us and our contact details, please see the Contact Us section.

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1.2 Our Sites enable you to gain access to content on Edward de Bono’s thinking techniques.

 

1.3 We also refer in these Terms of Use to our Privacy Notice, our Intellectual Property policy and our Cookie Policy. They, along with these Terms of Use, form part of our agreement with you for use of the Site(s) so please take the time to read them. We recommend that you print or save a copy of these Terms of Use for future reference.

 

1.4 By using our Site(s), you confirm that you accept these Terms and that you agree to comply with them.

 

1.5 If you have any queries or concerns regarding your agreement with us, please contact us at info@debono.com.

 

2. Types of user

 

2.1 There are potentially different types of users to the Sites. You may be:

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2.1.1 just a visitor, browsing the Site(s) content more generally and not signing up for any subscription areas of our Site(s);

2.1.2 a teacher at a school, a parent or guardian registering to use de Bono Thinking Lessons found at https://www.debono.com/de-bono-thinking-lessons-1/

2.1.3 a person providing training in the de Bono thinking techniques (known as an ‘Instructor’ or a ‘Trainer’);

2.1.4 the organisation authorised by us to sell de Bono courses, (known as a "Distributor").

2.1.5 a person that has subscribed (via a Distributor) to access content made available on the Site(s); or

2.1.6 a person that has subscribed directly on the Site(s) to access content on a free trial basis.

 

3. Accessing and using the Site(s)

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3.1 Anyone can access the generally available content on the Site(s) using their web browser and internet connection.

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3.2 Some of our content you need to be registered to access (but it still may be available at no charge, for example for a trial period) and some you will need to subscribe to (via a Distributor) in order to gain access.

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3.3 You may only register for an account if you are over 16 years old.

 

3.4 We try to make the Site(s) available at all times, but, of course, due to the inherent nature of online and internet based services, we cannot guarantee this.

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4. Your privacy and cookies

 

4.1 We take your privacy very seriously. Please read our Privacy Notice to see how we use your personal information.

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4.2 Like many online services we use a feature called a 'cookie'.  A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your device's hard drive, Please read our Cookie Policy for detailed information on the types of cookies we use on the Site(s), the purposes for which we use each cookie, how you can disable and enable the use of certain cookies and the consequences of doing so.

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5. Account registration

 

5.1 If you sign up and create your account you must make sure that all the information you provide when you register with the Site(s) is true, accurate, current and complete.

 

 

5.2 On registration, you will be asked to provide your email address and a password (ID). The email address that you provide must correspond to a named email account and not a generic or shared email account. We recommend that you do not select an obvious user password (such as your name) and that you change it regularly.

 

5.3 Each registration is for a single user only. You are not allowed to share your ID or give access to the content available via the Site(s) through your ID to anyone else. To be clear, we do not permit multiple users on a network or within an organisation to use the same ID.

 

5.4 If you change any of your registration details (e.g. email address), you must update your account.

 

5.5 You are responsible for all use of the Site(s) made by you or anyone else using your ID and for preventing unauthorised use of your ID. If you believe there has been any breach of security such as the disclosure, theft or unauthorised use of your ID, you must immediately notify us at info@debono.com.

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5.6 If you have breached (e.g. by sharing your ID), or we have justifiable reason to believe that you have breached, or will breach, these Terms, we may cancel or suspend your access to the Site(s) without further obligation to you.

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5.7 You can delete your account at any time. Please email us at info@debono.com to action this.

 

5.8 We reserve the right to delete your account and any personal data or other information associated with your use of the Site(s) if there is no activity on your account for more than 1 month after the end of your trial period or subscription terms.

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6. Subscriptions

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6.1 Certain content made available via the Site(s) is only available on a subscription basis.

 

6.2 You may be able to subscribe directly on the Site(s) to access some of this content on a trial basis at no charge.

 

6.3 Otherwise, you can purchase a subscription to our content from a Distributor. You can find a list of these at https://www.debono.com/authorised-distributors. Your contract for the subscription will be with the Distributor that you select, not us. Once you have paid them for your subscription, they will provide you with details for how to access the Site(s) to allow you to access your paid for content.

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6.4 If you are a consumer, you may, depending on where you live in the world, have certain statutory rights in respect of your subscription (e.g. the right to cancel within a certain period, rights for defective content). As your contract for your subscription is with your Distributor or Instructor, please contact them to understand your rights and, if you wish, to invoke them.

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6.5 Your subscriptions will not auto renew; if you wish to continue you will need to authorise a new subscription by contacting your Distributor or Instructor. If you choose not to renew you will continue to have access to your notes on the My Thoughts page that are hosted on the Site(s) for one month, after which the notes will be deleted. You may export your notes via the "Email me this" feature on the My Thoughts page.

 

7. Our Content

 

7.1 Our content includes any information or other material found on or via the Site(s), including without limitation text, audio, databases, graphics, videos, images and software and all other features found on or via the Site(s). It does not include user generated content.

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7.2 All our content is owned by (and all copyright, trade mark and other intellectual property rights in that content, shall at all times remain vested in) us or our licensors and is protected by UK and international copyright and other intellectual property laws.

 

7.3 We make the Site(s) and our content available for your personal, non-commercial use only, to do the following:

7.3.1 retrieve, display and view the Site’s pages and content online;

7.3.2 print one copy of the content for your own personal use only, unless you are a teacher, parent or guardian printing work cards from the de Bono Thinking Lessons found at https://www.debono.com/de-bono-thinking-lessons-1/, in which case you can use those lessons with your family or local school; and/or

7.3.3.use the "email me this" function to send yourself copies of your notes on LateralThinking.com or Six-Thinking-Hats.com;

7.3.4 make references to de Bono content in your own work as described in our Intellectual Property policy.

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7.4 You may not otherwise reproduce, modify, copy or distribute or use any of the content made available via the Site(s) (whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes), other than as expressly permitted under paragraph 7.3 above without our prior written consent. To be clear, you are not in any circumstances permitted to:

7.4.1 make commercial use of any such content;

7.4.2 translate, modify, adapt or create any derivative works of any such content; or

7.4.3 sell, distribute, loan, share give or lend the content or any extract to it, to any other person;

7.4.4 remove, obscure or otherwise tamper with any copyright and proprietary notices that relate to, or are contained within, the content; or

7.4.5 otherwise make any use of the content or an extract from it, in any form, by any manner or for any purpose , except as expressly set out in paragraph 7.3).

 

7.5 Please be aware that if you use any of the content or extracts from it in a way other than is specifically permitted under these Terms of Use:

7.5.1 you may be infringing copyright or other rights and therefore may be exposed to civil and/or criminal legal action;

7.5.2 your right to use the Site(s) will immediately cease and you must, at our option or return, destroy any copies of any content that you have made.

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7.6 The trade marks, logos, images and notations appearing on the Site(s) are owned by us or our licensors including, without limitation, ‘de Bono’, ‘Parallel Thinking’ and ‘Six Thinking Hats’. you are not permitted to reproduce the de Bono trademarks, logo, images or notations without written permission from de Bono. Any such use without our written permission may constitute an infringement of our rights.

 

7.7 Once you have completed a de Bono course via the Site(s), we may provide you with certification or a badge (including in digital form). You may use these solely for the purpose of evidencing the fact you have been trained in the relevant de Bono course. You are not permitted to use them (including the de Bono trade mark included in them) in any other way, including to endorse any product or service.

 

8. General prohibitions on access and use of the Site(s)

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8.1 You may use the Site(s) only for lawful purposes.You may not use the Site(s):

8.1.1 in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;

8.1.2 in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;

8.1.3 for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way; or

8.1.4 to knowingly transmit, send or upload any data or other material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

 

8.2 You also agree:

8.2.1 not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of the Site or its’ content in contravention of the provisions of these Terms of Use;

8.2.2 not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:

(a) any part of the Site(s);

(b) any equipment or network on which the Site(s) is stored;

(c) any software used in the provision of the Site; or

(d) any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.

 

8.3 You will not carry out data mining, screen scraping or crawling of the Site(s), its pages or its content or use any process or processes that send automated queries to this Site(s) unless you have obtained our prior written consent.

 

9. Uploading of your content to the Site(s)

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9.1 Any content which you post, contribute or otherwise submit to the Site(s) is generally known as ‘user generated content’ or ‘UGC’.

 

9.2 You own any copyright in the UGC that you post to any forum on the Site(s). However, when you post such content, you expressly grant us a perpetual, unlimited free licence to republish that content on the Site(s).

 

9.3. We do not routinely monitor the use of the forums or other communications on the Site(s). However, if you spot any abuse or inappropriate behaviour, please contact us as soon as you can so that we can review the posting(s) concerned and take any action necessary. You should email us at info@debono.com.

 

9.4 To the fullest extent permissible under applicable law we disclaim any and all promises, warranties, conditions, or representations relating to the UGC. In particular:

9.4.1 we are not responsible for verifying the ownership of any content posted or uploaded onto the Site(s); and

9.4.2 any posting of comments or information on the Site(s) is the opinion of the person posting only and in no way reflects our opinions or attitudes, nor constitutes any form of recommendation, representation, endorsement or arrangement by us. To be clear, each user acts on his/her own behalf at all times and does not act as our representative or agent in any way.

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9.5 We will not be responsible or liable for any form of direct, indirect, consequential or special loss in connection with your UGC including any direct or indirect loss of profits; revenue; business; data; opportunity; goodwill; reputation or business interruption.

 

10. Liability to you in respect of a subscription

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10.1 Liability in respect of any subscription you have purchased depends on the capacity in which you are accessing and using the Site(s) as follows:

10.1.1 If you are a Distributor, you have an offline distributor agreement in place with us. Our liability to you in connection with the subscriptions you purchase is set out in that agreement. We have no separate liability to you under these Terms of Use in connection with the subscriptions. Our liability to you in respect of your usage of the Site(s) itself is set out in paragraph 11 below.

10.1.2 If you are an Instructor, you have an agreement in place with your authorised distributor, under which you purchased your subscription to the Site(s). Any liability arising in connection with your subscription and the training you receive should be raised directly with your authorised distributor, not us. We do not have any liability to you in connection with your subscription. Our liability to you in respect of your usage of the Site(s) itself is set out in paragraph 11 below.

10.1.3 If you are a consumer that has purchased a subscription, you have an agreement in place with your Instructor under which you purchased your subscription to the Site(s). Any liability arising in connection with your subscription and any training you receive should be raised directly with your Instructor, not us. We do not have any liability to you in connection with your subscription. Our liability to you in respect of your usage of the Site(s) itself is set out in paragraph 11 below.

10.1.4 If you are a consumer that has:

(a) signed up for a free trial;

(b) is just a visitor to the Site(s); or

(c) is a teacher, parent or guardian printing work cards from the de Bono Thinking Lessons found at https://www.debono.com/de-bono-thinking-lessons-1/

our liability to you in respect of your usage of the Site(s) itself and the content made available through it is set out in paragraph 11 below.

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11. Other liability to you and disclaimers

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11.1 Liability to you in connection with any subscription you purchase is set out in paragraph 10. Otherwise, our liability is set out in the remaining provisions of this paragraph 11.

 

11.2 The Site(s) is provided on an "as is" basis. To the fullest extent permissible under applicable law, we disclaim any and all promises, warranties, conditions, or representations relating to the Site(s) and its content, whether express, implied, oral or written. In particular we do not make any promises as to the truth, accuracy, integrity, quality or completeness of the content or information that appears on the Site(s) and you should not rely on it being accurate, truthful or complete.

 

11.3 You agree that your access and use of the Site(s) is at your own risk. We do not have any knowledge of, or control over, the particular purposes for which the information and content available on and via the Site(s) is used. The content and information that we make available via the Site(s) is provided for information only. Accordingly, we exclude any and all liability for any loss of any nature suffered by you as a direct or indirect result of your use of any of the information or content available on the Site(s) or of making any decision, or refraining from making any such decision, based wholly or partly on any expression of opinion, statement or other information contained in the content available on or via the Site(s).

 

11.4 By using the Site(s) you acknowledge and accept the inherent risks, characteristics and limitations of the Internet, particularly in terms of technical performance of the Site(s), response times to view, verify or transfer information; and the risks inherent in all third party links, connections and transfers via the Internet. Accordingly:

11.4.1 we do not make any promises about the availability or accessibility of the Site(s) or promise that your access to the Site(s), the content on it or the services we provide will be delivered uninterrupted, in a timely manner or error-free; and

11.4.2 we are not responsible for any UGC uploaded by any users including any content posted or uploaded to the Site(s). It is your responsibility to make backup copies of any of the content you post, upload or publish to the Site and we strongly recommend that you do so.

 

11.5 We make no promises in respect of any harm that may be caused by the transmission of a computer virus, worm, time bomb, Trojan horse, cancelbot, logic bomb or any other form of programming routine designed to damage, destroy or otherwise impair a computer's functionality or operation including transmission arising from your download of any content, software you use to download the content, the Site(s) or the servers that make it available. In this respect you agree that it is your responsibility to install suitable anti-virus and security software on your computer hardware and other devices to protect against any such bugs, viruses or other such harmful programming routines. Any content downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of the Site(s) is done at your own risk and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such content.

 

11.6 We will not be responsible or liable to any visitors browsing the pages of this Site(s) for:

11.6.1 any form of indirect, consequential or special loss; or

11.6.2 any financial loss or loss of data, opportunity, goodwill or reputation, in each case whether such loss is direct or indirect.

 

11.7 There are certain liabilities which we cannot exclude by law and nothing in these Terms of Use excludes or limits our liability for the following:

11.7.1 for death or personal injury caused by our negligence;

11.7.2 fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or

11.7.3 any other matter for which it would be illegal or unlawful for us to exclude or attempt to exclude its liability. 

 

11.8 If you are a consumer using this Site(s):

11.8.1 other than liability in respect of a subscription you have purchased which is dealt with under paragraph 10.1.3; and

11.8.2 other than liability under paragraph 11.7;

 

we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breach of our obligations under these Terms of Use or as a result of our negligence, but we are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable.  Loss or damage is foreseeable if they were an obvious consequence of our breach of our obligations under these Terms of Use or if they were contemplated by you and us at the time we entered into the contract represented by these Terms of Use.

 

11.9 If you are a Distributor or an Instructor using this Site(s), then other than liability in respect of a subscription you have purchased which is dealt with under paragraphs 10.1.1 or 10.1.2 respectively, if we are found to be liable, our total liability to you in respect of all claims made against us in connection with the Site(s)  or a breach of our obligations under these Terms of Use shall be £50.

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12. Changes

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12.1 We may make changes to these Terms of Use at any time by sending you an email with the modified Terms of Use or by posting a copy of them on the Site(s). Any changes will take effect 7 days after the date of our email or the date on which we post the modified terms on the Site(s), whichever is the earlier. If you continue to use the Site(s) after that period has expired, it means that you accept any such changes.

 

12.2. We reserve the right to change the content available on the Site(s).

 

13. Complaints, feedback and requests

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13.1 If you have any general complaints or wish to request further information about the Site(s), please contact us via email at info@debono.com or by post to First Floor, Templeback, 10 Temple Back, Bristol, BS1 6FL, United Kingdom and we will do our best to resolve these.

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14. Written communications

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14.1 Applicable laws require that some of the information or communications we send to you should be in writing. When using the Site(s), you accept that communication with us will be mainly electronic. We will contact you by email or provide you with information by posting notices on the Site(s). For contractual purposes, you agree to this electronic means of communication and you acknowledge that all contracts, notices, information and other communications that we provide to you electronically comply with any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. This condition does not affect your statutory rights.

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15. General

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15.1 Severability. If any part of these Terms of Use is found to be unenforceable as a matter of law, all other parts of these Terms of Use will not be affected and will remain in force.

 

15.2 Reliance on these Terms of Use. We intend to rely on these written Terms of Use and any document expressly referred to in them in relation to the subject matter of any contract between us. We and you will be legally bound by these Terms of Use.

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15.3 Events or circumstances beyond our reasonable control. If we are prevented or delayed from complying with our obligations under these Terms of Use by anything you (or anyone acting on your behalf) does or fails to do or due to events or circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including fire, flood and other acts of God, strikes, trade disputes, lock outs,  disruption to utility supplies or acts of terrorism or war, our inability or delay in performing our obligations will not be deemed to be in breach of contract.

 

15.4 Assignment. You may not assign, sub-license or otherwise transfer any of your rights under these Terms of Use.

 

15.5 Waiver. If you breach these Terms of Use and we choose to ignore your breach, we will still be entitled to use our rights and remedies at a later date or in any other situation where you breach the Terms of Use again.

 

15.6 Exclusion of third party rights. These Terms of Use do not create any right enforceable by any person who is not a party to them (or any contract made under them).

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15.7 Language. The contract between us will be concluded in English.

 

16. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

 

16.1 Any disputes or claims between us arising out of or in connection with these Terms of Use or any contract made under them (including non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England.

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16.2 Any disputes or claims arising shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England. Nothing in this paragraph shall deprive consumers of the right to bring or defend proceedings in their home state nor of the protection afforded to them by the mandatory rules of law of the country in which they live.

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17. Contact us

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17.1 The Site(s) is owned by Edward de Bono Limited, trading as de Bono, a company incorporated in England. Our registered office address is: First Floor, Templeback, 10 Temple Back, Bristol, BS1 6FL, United Kingdom.

Our registered company number is 11433091 and our VAT registration number is 363308995

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These Terms and Conditions were updated 12th November 2021 to include IP Policy.