Article 1. Purpose

These Terms of Service aim to establish the terms and conditions for the use of services provided by “White Whale Patent Firm” (hereinafter “the Site”) and regulations concerning all matters related to its operation.

Article 2. Definition of Terms

The definitions of key terms used in these Terms are as follows:

① Member: A user who has agreed to the Site’s terms, provided personal information, completed member registration, entered into a service agreement with the Site, and uses the Site.

② Service Agreement: An agreement concluded between the Site and a member regarding the use of the Site.

③ Member ID: A unique combination of letters and numbers assigned to each member for identification and service use.

④ Password: A combination of letters and numbers selected by the member to verify their identity matching the assigned ID and protect their rights and interests.

⑤ Operator: The operator who establishes and operates the homepage on the service.

⑥ Termination: The cancellation of the service agreement by a member.

Article 3. Rules Beyond the Terms

The Operator may separately announce operational policies as necessary. In cases where these Terms and operational policies overlap, the operational policies shall take precedence.

Article 4. Conclusion of Service Agreement

① A service agreement is established when a person wishing to register as a member and use the Site agrees to the content of these Terms and submits a membership application, and the Operator approves such use.

② A person wishing to register as a member and use the service indicates their consent to these Terms by reading them during the Site membership application and selecting “I agree” below.

Article 5. Service Use Application

Members who do not register their genuine information, such as by stealing others’ information or registering false information, cannot claim any rights related to the use of the Site and may be punished in accordance with relevant laws.

Article 6. Privacy Policy

The Site and Operator do not possess passwords among the personal information provided during member registration, and matters related to this follow the Site’s Privacy Policy. The Operator strives to protect members’ personal information, including member registration information, as prescribed by relevant laws. The protection of members’ personal information shall follow relevant laws and the Privacy Policy established by the Site. However, the Operator assumes no responsibility for information exposed due to members’ own fault. If a member registers or distributes illegal posts that harm public morals or threaten national security, the Operator may review the member’s data and submit such data to relevant agencies upon their request.

Article 7. Obligations of the Operator

① The Operator shall process opinions or complaints raised by members as quickly as possible if deemed legitimate. However, if prompt processing is difficult due to personal circumstances, the Operator will make every effort to notify afterwards or send messages or emails to members.

② The Operator may request the Site to repair or restore equipment without delay in case of equipment failure or loss to ensure continuous and stable Site provision. However, Site operation may be temporarily suspended in cases of natural disasters or unavoidable circumstances for the Site or Operator.

Article 8. Obligations of Members

① Members must comply with matters stipulated in these Terms, all regulations established by the Operator, notices, operational policies and other matters announced by the Site, and relevant laws. Members must not engage in activities that interfere with the Site’s operations or damage the Site’s reputation.

② Members cannot transfer, donate, or provide as collateral their service use rights or other status under the service agreement to others without the Site’s explicit consent.

③ Members must exercise considerable care in managing their ID and password and cannot provide their ID to third parties for use without the consent of the Operator or Site.

④ Members must not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of the Operator, Site, or third parties.

Article 9. Service Use Hours

① Service use hours are in principle 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, unless there are special operational or technical obstacles. However, the Site may temporarily suspend service on dates or times designated by the Site for system regular inspections, expansion, and replacement. Please refer to advance notices on the Site’s homepage regarding temporary service suspension due to scheduled work.

② However, the Site may temporarily or permanently suspend service without prior notice or warning in the following cases:

• Emergency system inspection, expansion, replacement, malfunction, or errors
• Force majeure circumstances such as national emergencies, power outages, or natural disasters
• When telecommunications service providers regulated by the Telecommunications Business Act suspend telecommunications services
• When normal service use is hindered due to service congestion, etc.

③ In cases of service suspension per the preceding paragraph, the Site will notify members through notices in advance. However, if advance notice is impossible due to circumstances beyond the Site’s control, post-notification will be provided instead.

Article 10. Service Use Termination

① When a member wishes to terminate their service agreement with the Site, the member must submit a termination application online themselves. Meanwhile, termination of the service agreement with the Site must be handled separately from Site use termination.

② Upon termination application, Site-related programs provided by the Site are automatically deleted from the member management screen, so the Operator can no longer view the termination applicant’s information.

Article 11. Service Use Restrictions

Members must not engage in the following acts. If such acts occur, the Site may restrict the member’s service use, take lawful measures, terminate the service agreement, or suspend service for a specified period.

① Registering false information during member registration or when changing information after registration

② Interfering with others’ use of the Site or stealing information

③ Impersonating the Site’s management, staff, or related parties

④ Infringing upon the personality rights or intellectual property rights of the Site or other third parties, or interfering with business operations

⑤ Illegally using another member’s ID

⑥ Collecting, storing, or disclosing personal information about other members without their consent

⑦ Acts objectively judged to be associated with crimes

⑧ Acts violating other relevant laws

Article 12. Management of Posts

① The Operator is responsible for managing and operating posts and materials on the Site. The Operator must always monitor inappropriate posts and materials, and upon discovering or receiving reports of such content, must delete the posts and materials and warn the member who registered them. Meanwhile, members are responsible for posts they upload, so members must not post content that violates these Terms.

② If there is a corrective request from public institutions such as the Korea Communications Standards Commission, the Operator may delete or move posts without prior consent from members.

③ Criteria for determining inappropriate posts are as follows:

• Content that severely insults or damages the reputation of other members or third parties
• Content that distributes or links to material violating public order and morals
• Content encouraging illegal copying or hacking
• Commercial advertisements
• Content objectively recognized as associated with crimes
• Content infringing upon copyrights or other rights of other users or third parties
• Content judged to violate other relevant laws

④ If the Site and Operator receive a request to suspend posting from a third party due to defamation, intellectual property rights infringement, or other rights violations, they may temporarily suspend posting (transmission suspension). The Site will follow the results of lawsuits, agreements, or decisions by relevant institutions between the posting suspension requester and the post registrant once received by the Site.

Article 13. Storage of Posts

If the Site Operator must discontinue the Site due to unavoidable circumstances, advance notice will be given to members and every effort will be made to facilitate the transfer of posts.

Article 14. Copyright of Posts

① Copyright of posts published by members on the Site belongs to the posting member. Additionally, the Site cannot use posts commercially without the poster’s consent. However, this does not apply to non-profit purposes, and the Site retains the right to publish within the service.

② Members cannot commercially use materials posted on the service, such as arbitrarily processing or selling information obtained through the service.

③ The Operator may delete, move, or refuse registration of content posted or registered by members on the Site without prior notice if judged to fall under any items in Article 12.

Article 15. Compensation for Damages

① Primary civil and criminal liability for all matters arising on this Site rests with the members themselves.

② No compensation will be provided for damages received by members from this Site if caused by force majeure such as natural disasters or by the member’s intent or negligence.

Article 16. Disclaimer

① The Operator is exempt from liability for damages arising from members not obtaining expected benefits from the Site’s service provision or from selection or use of service materials.

② The Operator is exempt from liability in cases of failures in the Site’s service infrastructure or telecommunications services provided by other telecommunications providers. Damages related to the Site’s service infrastructure shall follow the Site’s Terms of Service.

③ The Operator assumes no liability whatsoever regarding materials stored, posted, or transmitted by members.

④ The Operator is not liable when service use障害 occur due to members’ own fault.

⑤ The Operator is not liable for any activities (including data transmission and other community activities) between members, between members and third parties, or any other member activities whether inside or outside this service.

⑥ The Operator is not liable for the authenticity, reliability, accuracy, or other content of materials posted or transmitted by members or all materials that members may receive through this Site.

⑦ The Operator is not liable for any damages arising from product transactions or other dealings between members or between members and third parties mediated through the service.

⑧ The Operator is not liable for any disputes arising between members or between members and third parties without fault attributable to the Operator.

⑨ The Operator is not liable for members’ damages caused by system failures that may occur without intent or gross negligence equivalent to intent during the management, inspection, maintenance, or replacement of servers and other equipment or software operation, system failures due to third-party attacks, distribution of computer viruses for which countermeasures have not been developed by renowned domestic or international research institutions or security companies, or other force majeure circumstances beyond the Operator’s control.

Addendum

These Terms shall be effective from November 27, 2023.