Terms of Use and Licence
Acoustofluidic Jet Simulator
Version 1.0 · Effective date: [DD Month 2026]
Provider:
SURFACtoBioTech GmbH
Elly-See-Str. 1, 22547 Hamburg, Germany
Registered with the Local Court (Amtsgericht) Hamburg under HRB 189110
Represented by its managing directors Martin Schröter and Jacqueline De Lora
Contact: [simulator@surfactobio.tech]
(hereinafter "Surfacto")
These Terms of Use and Licence (the "Terms") govern access to and use of the Acoustofluidic Jet Simulator provided by Surfacto as a hosted web service. Access is granted only to individuals whose registration has been approved by Surfacto and who have accepted these Terms. The Service is offered free of charge to support scientific exchange in droplet microfluidics and acoustofluidics, while protecting the models, data and know-how on which it is based.
1. Scope and Conclusion of the Agreement
1.1 These Terms apply to every use of the Service. By ticking the acceptance box during registration and submitting the registration form, the User offers to conclude an agreement on the basis of these Terms. The agreement is concluded when Surfacto approves the registration and activates the Account.
1.2 The Service is intended exclusively for use in a professional or academic capacity on behalf of an Organization. The User confirms that they act on behalf of the Organization stated during registration (for example a university, research institute, public body or company) and not as a consumer, and that they are authorised to accept these Terms on behalf of that Organization. The Organization and the User are jointly bound by these Terms.
1.3 Terms and conditions of the User or the Organization do not apply, even if Surfacto does not expressly object to them.
2. Definitions
"Account" means the personal user account created upon approved registration.
"Inputs" means all parameters, settings and other data entered into the Service by the User.
"Organization" means the legal entity or public body on whose behalf the User registers.
"Outputs" means the results displayed or exported by the Service in response to Inputs, such as plots, numerical predictions and reports.
"Permitted Purpose" has the meaning given in Section 4.2.
"Service" means the Acoustofluidic Jet Simulator as made available by Surfacto via [URL], including its user interface, documentation and any updates.
"Simulator Assets" means all non-public components underlying the Service, in particular software code, physical and statistical models, fitted parameters, coefficients, prediction maps, lookup tables, boundary condition data, calibration logic, training and experimental data, as well as any non-public documentation.
"Model Extraction" means any attempt to reconstruct, derive, replicate or approximate Simulator Assets, in whole or in part, including through systematic or automated querying of the Service, interpolation or fitting of Outputs, or the creation of surrogate or substitute models.
3. Registration and Access
3.1 Registration requires complete and accurate information, including name, Organization, institutional email address and intended use. The User shall keep this information up to date.
3.2 Surfacto decides on approval of registrations at its sole discretion. There is no entitlement to approval or to continued access.
3.3 Each Account is personal to one individual. Login credentials must be kept confidential and must not be shared, including within the Organization. Each individual user of an Organization requires their own Account.
3.4 The User shall notify Surfacto without undue delay if there are indications that the Account or credentials have been misused.
3.5 Surfacto may apply technical limits to the use of the Service (for example on the number or frequency of queries) and may change these limits at any time.
4. Licence
4.1 Subject to these Terms, Surfacto grants the User a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable and royalty-free right to access and use the Service via its web interface for the duration of the agreement and solely for the Permitted Purpose.
4.2 "Permitted Purpose" means internal scientific research, teaching and technical evaluation by or for the Organization, including internal research and development by commercial organizations for their own purposes.
4.3 The following uses are not part of the Permitted Purpose and require a separate written agreement with Surfacto: (a) using the Service or Outputs to provide services to third parties, in particular simulation, contract research or consulting services for paying clients; (b) integrating the Service or Outputs into products, software or services offered to third parties; (c) making the Service available to persons other than the User.
4.4 The Service is provided exclusively as a hosted service. No copy of the software or of any Simulator Assets is supplied to the User, and no rights to the Simulator Assets are granted other than as expressly set out in these Terms.
5. Restrictions
5.1 The User shall not, and shall not permit or assist any third party to:
(a) carry out or attempt any Model Extraction;
(b) copy, download, scrape or otherwise extract Simulator Assets, or access the Service by automated means (such as scripts, bots or crawlers) other than through interfaces expressly provided by Surfacto for this purpose;
(c) decompile, disassemble or otherwise reverse engineer the Service or any Simulator Assets, except to the extent such acts are mandatorily permitted by law;
(d) use the Service or Outputs to develop, train, validate or improve any machine learning model, simulator or other product or service that is similar to or competes with the Service;
(e) systematically generate and compile Outputs in a way that could serve as a substitute for the Service, such as datasets, maps or parameter sweeps covering substantial parts of the Service's parameter space;
(f) circumvent or interfere with access controls, usage limits or security measures, or test the Service for vulnerabilities without Surfacto's prior written consent;
(g) enter Inputs that are unlawful, contain malicious code or infringe the rights of third parties.
5.2 The prohibitions in Section 5.1 (a) to (c) constitute a contractual obligation to restrict the acquisition of trade secrets within the meaning of Section 3 (1) no. 2 (b) of the German Trade Secrets Act (GeschGehG).
6. Outputs and Publication
6.1 The User may use Outputs for the Permitted Purpose. This includes publishing individual Outputs and scientific results derived from them in scientific articles, theses, presentations, posters and grant applications, provided that the Service is cited in accordance with Section 9 and Section 5.1 (e) is observed.
6.2 Surfacto claims no ownership of, and no licence to, scientific results, inventions or other work products that the User or the Organization creates using Outputs.
6.3 Outputs are model-based predictions within the validated parameter ranges stated in the documentation. They are not experimentally verified for the User's specific setup and must not be used as the sole basis for decisions with safety, clinical or regulatory relevance. The User is responsible for verifying Outputs, for example by experiment.
7. Inputs, Usage Data and Feedback
7.1 All rights in Inputs remain with the User or the Organization. The User grants Surfacto the right to process Inputs to the extent necessary to provide, secure and maintain the Service.
7.2 Surfacto treats Inputs and Outputs generated for the User as confidential and will not disclose them to third parties, except to service providers bound by confidentiality who support the operation of the Service, or where required by law.
7.3 Surfacto may collect and use technical and usage data (for example access times, feature usage and error logs) and may analyse Inputs in aggregated form that does not identify the User or the Organization, in order to operate, secure and improve the Service. [Option: Surfacto may additionally use Inputs to improve its models.]
7.4 If the User provides suggestions or other feedback on the Service, Surfacto may use such feedback freely and without obligation to the User.
8. Confidentiality
8.1 Simulator Assets and any other non-public information about the Service that becomes known to the User, including information on unreleased features, model behaviour beyond the displayed Outputs and non-public documentation, are confidential information of Surfacto ("Confidential Information").
8.2 The User shall keep Confidential Information strictly confidential, use it only for the Permitted Purpose, disclose it only to persons within the Organization who need to know it and are bound by equivalent confidentiality obligations, and protect it with at least reasonable care.
8.3 These obligations do not apply to information that (a) was publicly known at the time of disclosure or becomes publicly known without breach of these Terms, (b) was lawfully known to the User before disclosure, (c) is lawfully received from a third party without a confidentiality obligation, (d) is independently developed without use of Confidential Information, or (e) must be disclosed by law or official order, in which case the User shall inform Surfacto in advance where legally permissible.
8.4 Outputs published in accordance with Section 6.1 are not Confidential Information.
8.5 The obligations under this Section 8 survive termination of the agreement for five (5) years and, with respect to trade secrets, for as long as they remain trade secrets.
9. Citation and Name Use
9.1 Publications that use Outputs shall cite the Service as follows: ["Acoustofluidic Jet Simulator, SURFACtoBioTech GmbH, version [x.y], [URL], accessed [date]" and/or reference publication].
9.2 Beyond such citation, the User shall not use the names, logos or trademarks of Surfacto, or state or imply an endorsement by Surfacto, without Surfacto's prior written consent.
10. Intellectual Property
10.1 All rights in the Service and the Simulator Assets, including copyrights, database rights, patent rights, trade secrets and trademarks, remain with Surfacto or its licensors.
10.2 No rights are transferred or granted by implication, estoppel or otherwise, except as expressly set out in these Terms.
11. Availability and Changes to the Service
11.1 The Service is provided free of charge. There is no entitlement to a particular availability, performance or feature set.
11.2 Surfacto may modify, restrict, suspend or discontinue the Service or individual features at any time, in particular for maintenance, security reasons or further development. Surfacto will endeavour to announce planned discontinuation of the Service with reasonable notice.
12. Warranty
12.1 As the Service is provided free of charge, Surfacto is liable for defects of the Service and of Outputs only if it has fraudulently concealed the defect.
12.2 Surfacto does not warrant that Outputs are accurate, complete or suitable for a particular purpose. Section 6.3 applies.
13. Liability
13.1 Surfacto is liable without limitation (a) for damages caused intentionally or by gross negligence, (b) for injury to life, body or health, (c) under mandatory statutory liability, in particular under product liability law, and (d) under any guarantee expressly given.
13.2 In all other cases, Surfacto's liability for slight negligence is excluded, taking into account that the Service is provided free of charge. To the extent such exclusion is not permitted by law, liability is limited to typical damages that were foreseeable at the time the agreement was concluded.
13.3 The above limitations also apply in favour of Surfacto's managing directors, employees and agents.
13.4 The User and the Organization shall indemnify Surfacto against claims of third parties arising from a culpable breach of these Terms by the User, including reasonable costs of legal defence.
14. Term and Termination
14.1 The agreement is concluded for an indefinite period.
14.2 The User may terminate the agreement at any time by notice in text form (for example by email) or by deleting the Account. Surfacto may terminate the agreement with two (2) weeks' notice in text form.
14.3 The right of either party to terminate for good cause without notice remains unaffected. Good cause for Surfacto exists in particular if the User breaches Section 5 or Section 8. Surfacto may block the Account with immediate effect if there are reasonable indications of such a breach.
14.4 Upon termination, the right to use the Service ends. Sections 5, 6.2, 6.3, 7.4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 and 17 survive termination.
15. Data Protection
15.1 Surfacto processes personal data of the User in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its Privacy Policy available at [URL].
15.2 The User shall not enter personal data of third parties as Inputs.
16. Changes to these Terms
16.1 Surfacto may amend these Terms with effect for the future, for example in the event of new features, legal changes or changes to the Service. Surfacto will notify the User of amendments by email at least four (4) weeks before they take effect.
16.2 If the User does not object within this period, the amended Terms are deemed accepted. Surfacto will specifically point out this consequence in the notification. If the User objects, either party may terminate the agreement with effect from the date on which the amendment would have taken effect.
17. Final Provisions
17.1 Amendments to and termination of the agreement require text form unless otherwise provided in these Terms. This also applies to any waiver of this form requirement.
17.2 Surfacto may transfer the agreement to an affiliated company or to a legal successor in the context of a transfer of the business operating the Service. The User may not assign rights or obligations under these Terms without Surfacto's prior consent.
17.3 These Terms constitute the entire agreement between the parties regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements on this subject matter.
17.4 Should any provision of these Terms be or become invalid or unenforceable, the validity of the remaining provisions shall not be affected. The invalid or unenforceable provision shall be replaced by the valid provision that comes closest to its economic purpose. The same applies to any gaps in these Terms.
17.5 These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).
17.6 To the extent permitted by law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from or in connection with these Terms is Hamburg, Germany. Surfacto may also bring proceedings at the general place of jurisdiction of the User or the Organization.