Terms &
Conditions
The use of www.blueoceandc.com and its services is subject to the following terms and conditions:
www.blueoceandc.com is owned and operated by Blue Ocean Strategies LLC of Alexandria, Virginia (referred to as “Blue Ocean” below).
Your use of the service and its associated software (referred to as “Service” below) is conditioned upon your compliance with and acceptance of these terms and conditions.
By approving these terms on the Blue Ocean site, accessing the Blue Ocean platform, signing an Order Form, or by using the Blue Ocean service you (referred to as “you” or “Customer” below) agree to bound by these terms and conditions.
1. The service
1.1 BlueOceanDC.com allows Subscribers to access the capabilities of the BlueOceanIQ rapid proposal prototyping service (the “Service”) which accelerates the proposal writing process. BlueOceanDC.com does not generate proposals and does not provide any user interface for Customers to create proposals or other documents.
1.2 Blue Ocean provides the Customer a right and permission to use the Service subject to a valid subscription, pursuant to the terms of the Order Form, or under the terms of ordering the Service through the online registration page.
1.3 Upon your subscription to the Service, Blue Ocean will grant you access to the Service or certain parts of it, allowing you or Blue Ocean to add user accounts (“Users“) and to control or manage certain features of the Service. Users’ access to the Service is limited and personal. You are responsible for actions taken by Users or by anyone using your accounts and passwords.
1.4 For changes and updates to the Customer’s Content that requires Blue Ocean’s involvement, Blue Ocean will upload a new version of the Content upon the Customer’s request within up to 7 business days from getting the necessary materials. This will come into effect only after providing Blue Ocean with the full list of desired changes and the necessary materials. “Business Day” shall mean any day in which the Virginia banks are operating in the state of Virginia.
1.5 Building additional templates and/or creating Content by the Blue Ocean team and/or developing new features and/or adding more users to the platform will be solely according to the signed Order Form between the Customer and Blue Ocean.
1.6 As part of the Service, Blue Ocean will supply the Customer with full hosting of his Content. Hosting the Customer’s Content under another domain or subdomain and/or supporting any third-party integrations and/or removing the Blue Ocean header and footer will be solely according to the signed Order Form between the Customer and Blue Ocean.
2. Scope of service and limitations
2.1 You assume full responsibility for your and your Users’ use of the Service in accordance with these Terms and with applicable local, state, federal, national and international laws, regulations and treaties, and warrant that you have obtained all rights in the Content to authorize Blue Ocean to input, process, distribute and display the Content as part of the service.
2.2 The Content (of any kind) created through this Service, either by you or Blue Ocean, is supplied and used by the Customer at his own will and at his own risk and responsibilities. Blue Ocean shall be held harmless from and against all losses, costs, liabilities, claims, damages, and expenses of every kind and character, as incurred, resulting from or relating to or arising out of the Customer’s uses of the content.
2.3 The Content belongs to the customer and Blue Ocean cannot use, copy or share it for any purpose without the Customer’s prior written consent. This clause shall remain in force after the termination of the Subscription. Given a request from the Customer, Blue Ocean will delete all the Content created during the Customers’ subscription period.
2.4 Any materials provided by the Customer to Blue Ocean or uploaded to the platform, including all the template versions, are considered as business confidential and Blue Ocean is not allowed to share, copy or use them for any other purpose other than the Customer’s needs as part of his subscription.
2.5 When using the Service in conjunction with other third-party services, the Customer will comply with the terms of service of such third party services. Blue Ocean shall not be held liable for any termination, breach of terms, or suspension of service resulting from the Customer use of the Service.
2.6 Blue Ocean will take reasonable actions to prevent unauthorized disclosure of or access to Content, in accordance with industry standards. Blue Ocean will notify you if it becomes aware of unauthorized access to Content.
2.8 EITHER PARTY’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO THE OTHER PARTY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS AGREEMENT OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE FEES ACTUALLY RECEIVED BY BLUE OCEAN FROM THE CUSTOMER UNDER THIS AGREEMENT DURING THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE APPLICABLE CLAIM. THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS WILL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY AND ARE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN THE PARTIES.
2.9 Both Blue Ocean and the Customer agree that any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Service or to the Agreement must be filed within two years after such claim or cause of action arose, or be forever barred.
2.10 This Agreement and the Order Form comprise the entire agreement between Blue Ocean and the Customer and supersede all prior agreements pertaining to subject matters of the Agreement, and Order Form. You specifically confirm that you have not entered into this Agreement relying on any oral or written public comments made by Blue Ocean regarding future functionality or features of the Service. The terms of any purchase order or similar document will have no effect and are hereby rejected.
2.11 Blue Ocean and the Customer are independent contractors with respect to each other, and nothing in this Agreement will be construed as creating a partnership, agency, fiduciary or employment relationship or a joint venture between you and Blue Ocean.
2.12 All modifications to or waivers of any term of this Agreement must be in a writing signed by Blue Ocean and the Customer and expressly reference this Agreement. No waiver of any term of this Agreement will be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term, and any failure to assert any right under the Agreement will not constitute a waiver.
2.13 The Customer accepts responsibility for the final work product and certifies that they have the relevant skills, knowledge, and experience to oversee the preparation of all work products delivered by Blue Ocean.
2.14 This Agreement, and any rights granted hereunder, may not be transferred or assigned by a party, except to a successor of all or substantially all of its business or assets (by merger or otherwise).
3. Term and Termination
3.1 The service’s time period (the “Term”) is entered into effect as of the Effective Date according to the date which appears on your Order Form or from the date of the first process online payment for Blue Ocean and remains until the Customer has requested to unsubscribe from the service.
3.2 Upon termination of the subscription, Blue Ocean will be entitled to revoke access to the Blue Ocean platform and related digital assets (such as system emails) and remove the Customers’ Content from all systems after 30 days from the date of termination.
3.4 Either Blue Ocean and the Customer may terminate this Agreement if the other party (i) materially breached this Agreement and has not cured such breach within 30 days after receiving notice (if curable), without prejudice and in addition to any right or remedy that the non-defaulting party may have under this Agreement or the applicable law, or (ii) becomes the subject of a petition in bankruptcy or any other proceeding relating to insolvency, receivership, liquidation or assignment for the benefit of creditors.
4. Proprietary rights
4.1 Except for the Customer’s Content, all parts of the Service belong to Blue Ocean and are protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents or other proprietary rights, as a collective work or compilation, pursuant to laws and international conventions.
4.2 Blue Ocean shall be free to use data gathered during the usage of the platform and or the Content created as part of the Service for any purpose it may have, as long as the data is aggregated and is fully anonymized so it can’t be linked in any way to the Customer or to his Content.
4.3 In the course of using the Service, the Customer or his Users may provide Blue Ocean with feedback and suggestions regarding the Service. You hereby assign to Blue Ocean ownership in all such feedback and suggestions and all rights therein, without any royalty or accounting obligations to you.
5. Service fees and payments
5.1 In consideration for the right to use the Service under the terms herein, the Customer shall pay fees according to the amount and payment terms under the applicable Order Form or the terms approved by you in an online subscription form (the “Fees”). Except to the extent otherwise expressly stated in this Agreement or in an order form, all obligations to pay Subscription Fees are non-cancelable and all payments are non-refundable.
5.2 Customer’s Fees are exclusive of taxes, levies, duties or similar governmental assessments of any kind (excluding taxes based on Blue Ocean’s income, property and employees). You will be responsible for paying any and all such taxes.
5.3 In case of payments delayed that has not been cured within 30 days, Blue Ocean can decide to suspend all the Customer’s users access to the platform and deny access to the Customer’s Content until payment is settled.
6. Warranty scope and limitations
6.1 Each of you and Blue Ocean represent, warrant, and covenant to the other that it has the full corporate right, power and authority to enter into and perform this Agreement, and such execution and performance does not and will not violate any other agreement to which it is a party, and that this Agreement constitutes its legal, valid and binding obligation.
6.2 The Service, when used in accordance with this Agreement, will perform in all material respects as specified in Section 1 above. Your sole and exclusive remedy under such warranty shall be for Blue Ocean to use commercially reasonable efforts to correct or to replace the affected Service with a component or service of similar functionality. The above warranty is conditioned upon you notifying Blue Ocean in writing within 30 days of discovery of any alleged defect in the Service together with a documented example of such defect. This warranty shall not apply to any portion of the Service that (i) have been subject to abuse or misuse, (ii) is used in combination with any other products, process, equipment or software not furnished by Blue Ocean, (iii) is related to a virus, worms and the like that has not been introduced by Blue Ocean, or (iiii) was used without authorization.
6.3 Neither party will be deemed to be in breach of this Agreement for any failure caused by reasons beyond a party’s reasonable control (including without limitation acts of God, war or civil disturbance), and it will notify the other party as soon as practicable in writing of such failure.
7. Mutual confidentiality
7.1 “Business confidential” means all information provided by a party to another party, whether orally or in writing, that is designated as confidential or that reasonably should be understood to be confidential given the nature of the information and the circumstances of disclosure, and excluding any information that was or has become publicly available without the receiving party’s actions or inactions.
7.2 Blue Ocean’s confidential information includes, without limitation, the Service’s features, functionality and performance and your view of the Service. The Customers’ Confidential Information includes, without limitation, his Content.
7.3 Each party will hold the other party’s Confidential Information in strict confidence, use it only subject to the terms of this Agreement, allow its use only by the receiving party’s employees and consultants who have signed in advance a confidentiality agreement containing terms similar to this Agreement and on a need-to-know basis and pursuant to the terms of this Agreement, not make the other party’s Confidential Information available to any third party unless to the extent required by applicable law, implement adequate security measures to ensure against unauthorized access to, use or copying of the other party’s Confidential Information, and notify the other party in writing of any misuse of misappropriation of the other party’s Confidential Information of which the receiving party may become aware.
8. Governing Law
8.1 This Agreement shall be governed by and construed under the laws of the State of Virginia, without giving effect to principles of conflict of laws.