Terms of Use

These Terms of Use are applicable to your access to and use of FM Approvals websites, mobile applications, associated microsites, email exchanges, affiliated sites and other similar applications (collectively referred to as "Site(s)") operated by FM Approvals.  Throughout this Policy, "FM Approvals" refers to FM Approvals, including its subsidiaries, affiliates and brands (also referred to as "we", "us", or "our").  Your access to and use of the Site and the information, materials, products, and services available through the Site are subject to these Terms of Use, regardless of whether you possess an account through the Site linked to your name and/or contact information ("Account").  By accessing or using the Site, you acknowledge that you understand and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use, that these Terms of Use are a binding contract, that your access or use is contingent upon compliance with the terms set out herein, and that violation of these Terms of Use will constitute an actionable breach of contract claim, an act of willful copyright infringement and other cause of action.  If you do not understand or agree to be bound by these Terms of Use, do not access or use the Site.

CHANGES TO THESE TERMS OF USE

We reserve the right to modify these Terms of Use, in whole or in part, in our own discretion at any time.  Modifications shall be effective immediately upon the linking of modified Terms of Use to the Site. You agree to comply with, and be bound by, any such modifications by continuing to use or access the Site after modified Terms of Use are posted to the Site. Note that your Account information resides with FM Approvals and any changes to user names, passwords, email address or other information must be made through FM ApprovalGuide.com and not this Site. 

SITE PRIVACY POLICY

Our Site privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") is a part of these Terms of Use and is incorporated by reference.  By accepting these Terms of Use you agree to our collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in the Privacy Policy.  Click here to view the Privacy Policy.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

All text, graphics, user interfaces, photographs, trademarks, logos, sounds, music, artwork, computer code, and other materials contained on the Site (collectively, "Content") are owned, controlled, or licensed by or to FM Approvals, and are protected by trade dress, copyright, patent, and trademark laws, and various other intellectual property rights and laws. No license to or right in any such Content is granted to or conferred upon you.  Except as expressly provided in these Terms of Use, you agree not to use, modify, copy, reproduce, reverse engineer, republish, upload, post, transmit, distribute, sell, license, rent, publicly display or perform, edit, adapt or create a derivative work of, in any manner, any Content or any other part of the Site, without FM Approvals' express prior written consent. You also agree not to use any data mining, deep-link, page-scrape, bots, spiders, or similar data gathering and extraction tools or methods, including without limitation any such tools or methods which utilize artificial intelligence or other automated and/or machine learning, training or manually created image-sets for use by artificial intelligence or other generative systems, on the Site or any Content or other information, materials, products, or services available through the Site without FM Global’s express prior written consent.

Notwithstanding the above, you may view, use, download, and print selected portions of the Site solely for your own personal informational use; provided that you do not republish the Content and that you keep intact all copyright, trademarks, servicemarks, attributions, patent, and other proprietary notices.

YOUR PROVISION OF CONTACT AND ACCOUNT INFORMATION TO US

When you provide information about yourself to us, including when you create your Account with FM Approvals from which information is derived for use of this Site, you agree to: (a) provide accurate, current, and complete information about yourself, and not to provide information that attempts to impersonate another individual; and (b) maintain and promptly update such information to keep it accurate, current, and complete in accordance with our Privacy Policy (link provided above).  If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, or incomplete, or we have reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, or incomplete, we retain the right to suspend or terminate any account you establish and/or to refuse any or all current or future use of the Site or any portion thereof.

YOUR PROVISION OF INFORMATION ABOUT OTHERS TO US

Should you provide information about others to us, you represent and warrant that you have obtained the appropriate consents from that person to provide his/her information to FM Approvals.

INFORMATION AND TOOLS PROVIDED THROUGH THE SITES

The Site may contain information and tools, including communication tools. You acknowledge and agree that we have no duty or obligation to maintain the accuracy of, or update any such information, and agree that your reliance on any such information and tools is at your own risk. Communication through the Site should NOT be construed as a legal document or as a replacement to any document or any other notification method that has been previously agreed upon. FM Approvals does not mandate compliance in any area.

PROVIDING OTHERS WITH ACCESS TO THE SITES

Certain areas of the Site are accessible by registration only. There is no mechanism by which a user may gain access to these areas of the Site unless they are registered as a user through FM Approvals.  If one does not have access granted through FM Approvals, the user will not have access to the Site. The content/information that each User may access through the Site are set and maintained upon initial registration when the user is granted access to FM Approvals.

USE/DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE

You agree that we may use any information you provide to us through the Site for the purpose of exercising our legal rights and protecting our interests in the event any of the information you provide is relevant or helpful in connection with insurance claims brought by our customers or any legal actions brought by or against us.  You further agree that we may disclose any information you provide to us through the Site to third parties in connection with, or in anticipation of, insurance claims brought by our customers or any legal actions brought by or against us.

USER-PROVIDED CONTENT

You understand that all information, data, or other materials that you or another user provide in connection with the Site or otherwise communicate to us ("User-Provided Content"), is the sole responsibility of you or the person from whom such User-Provided Content originated. This means that you, and not us, are responsible for all User-Provided Content that you upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available in connection with the Site. We do not control the User-Provided Content posted and, as such, do not guarantee the accuracy, integrity, nature or quality of any User-Provided Content. Under no circumstances will we be liable in any way for any User-Provided Content, including, but not limited to, for any errors or omissions in any User-Provided Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the publication or use of any User-Provided Content posted, emailed, transmitted, or otherwise made available in connection with the Site.

You understand that we will take all reasonable or necessary steps, including, but not limited to, cooperation with law enforcement authorities to prevent the Site from being used for the purposes of uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting, or otherwise making available any indecent, offensive, harmful, objectionable or unlawful content.

By submitting any User-Provided Content to FM Approvals, you represent and warrant that:

  • you own or control all rights to User-Provided Content you post on the Site;
  • all "moral rights" that you may have in such content have been voluntarily waived by you;
  • all content that you post is accurate, does not violate these Terms of Use, and will not cause injury to any person or entity; and
  • you are at least 13 years old.

YOUR GRANT OF LICENSE TO FM APPROVALS FOR USER-PROVIDED CONTENT

By uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting, or otherwise making available any User-Provided Content, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable right and license to use, reproduce, display, perform, adapt, modify, delete in its entirety, publish, translate, create derivative works from, or distribute (or have distributed) such User-Provided Content and/or incorporate such User-Provided Content into any form, medium, or technology throughout the world without compensation to you, including, but not limited to, in any unaffiliated third party content and in our or their publications, marketing material and advertisements.  We or others may, in our sole discretion, cite to your name or other identifier you provided when posting User-Provided Content.  As noted above, you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all rights in and to any such User-Provided Content, and that our publication and use of your User-Provided Content will not infringe or violate the rights of any third party.

FM APPROVALS’ DISCRETION TO USE USER-PROVIDED CONTENT

All User-Provided Content that you submit may be used at FM Approvals’ sole discretion and in accordance with our Privacy Policy (link provided above). FM Approvals reserves the right to change, condense, delete, or refuse to post any User-Provided Content on the Site in its sole discretion. FM Approvals does not guarantee that you will have any recourse through FM Approvals to edit or delete any User-Provided Content you have submitted. None of the User-Provided Content that you submit shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on the part of FM Approvals, its agents, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, or third-party service providers and their respective directors, officers, and employees.

YOUR CONDUCT

You agree to comply with all laws, rules, and regulations applicable to your use of the Site. In addition, you agree not to:

  • upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any User-Provided Content that is known by you to be false, inaccurate, or misleading;
  • upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any User-Provided Content that violates any law, statute, ordinance, or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination, or false advertising);
  • upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any User-Provided Content that is, or may reasonably be considered to be, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, or that harms minors in any way;
  • forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any User-Provided Content transmitted in connection with the Site;
  • upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any User-Provided Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, or proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
  • upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any User-Provided Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other proprietary right of any party;
  • upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation;
  • upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
  • take any action that interferes with the proper working of the Site, compromises the security of the Site, or otherwise damages the Site or any materials and information available through the Site;
  • attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion or feature of the Site, to any other systems or networks connected to the Site, to any of our servers, or to any of the services offered on or through the Site by, including, but not limited to, hacking, password “mining”, or any other unauthorized means;
  • probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Site or any network connected to the Site or bypass the authentication measures on the Site or any network connected to the Site;
  • use any automated means to collect information or content from or otherwise access the Site, including, but not limited to, through the use of technical tools known as robots, spiders, or scrapers, without our prior permission;
  • harvest or otherwise collect and store information about other users of the Site, including e-mail addresses;
  • install any software, file, or code that is not authorized by the user of a computer or mobile device or that assumes control of all or any part of the processing performed by a computer or mobile device without the authorization of the user of the computer or mobile device;
  • take any action that would negatively affect FM Approvals in any manner; or
  • interfere with or disrupt the operation of the Site or server networks connected to the Site, reverse engineer, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies, or regulations of networks connected to the Site.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES AND SITES

For your convenience, the Site may contain links to or at times redirect you to other websites, mobile apps, and online services owned or controlled by third parties. Also, at your request, the Site may connect to social networking websites that are not owned or controlled by us. 

These other websites, mobile apps, and online services are not under our control, and you acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible or liable for the accuracy; collection, use, or disclosure of information; copyright compliance; legality; decency; or any other aspect of such websites, mobile apps, and online services or the content displayed on or through them. The inclusion of such a link does not imply our endorsement of any such website, mobile app, or online service, the content displayed on or through it, or any association with its operators, and you agree not to hold us responsible for any harm that may arise based on your access to or use of any linked website, mobile app, or online service.

REGISTRATION AND PASSWORDS

FM Approvals is using the FM Approvals registration process to manage end user identities for this Site. The Site requires you to register or obtain a password prior to permitting you to access the Site.  You acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login ID and password, and for all uses of your login ID, password, and/or Account.  You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your login ID, password, or Account, or any other breach of security involving access to the Site through your Account. You acknowledge that you may be held liable for any loss or harm incurred by us or any other person or entity due to someone else using your login ID, password, or Account as a result of your failing to keep your Account information secure and confidential.

OPERATION OF THE SITES

We reserve the right to do any of the following, at any time, at our sole discretion, with or without notice: (i) modify, suspend, or terminate operation of or your access to the Site, or any portion of the Site, including, but not limited to, for your violation of these Terms of Use; (ii) modify or change the Site, or any portion of the Site; and (iii) interrupt the regular operation of the Site, or any portion of the Site, as necessary to perform routine or non-routine maintenance, to correct errors, or to make other changes to the Site.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

THE SITE AND ALL MATERIALS, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES INCLUDED IN OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" FOR YOUR USE.  THE SITE AND ALL MATERIALS, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES INCLUDED IN OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITE ARE PROVIDED WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NONINFRINGEMENT.  WE AND OUR AFFILIATES DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE MATERIALS, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES INCLUDED IN OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITE ARE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, OR CORRECT; THAT THE SITE WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION; THAT ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED; OR THAT THE SITE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.  YOUR USE OF THE SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.  BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT PERMIT THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, THESE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL WE OR OUR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SITE.  THIS LIMITATION APPLIES WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHER LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.  IN THE EVENT SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF DAMAGES TO THE EXTENT INDICATED ABOVE, OUR LIABILITY IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. 

INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us, our affiliates, subsidiaries, joint ventures, third-party service providers, and our respective employees, contractors, agents, officers, and directors harmless from all liabilities, claims, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) that arise out of or are related to any User-Provided Content you submit, post, transmit, or make available through the Site, your violation of these Terms of Use, your use or misuse of the Site, any work you perform in connection with the Site, or your violation of any third-party rights.

CHOICE OF LAW AND JURISDICTION

You agree that these Terms of Use will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Rhode Island without regard to the conflicts of laws, rules of any jurisdiction, and that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms of Use or your access to or use of the Site will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts located within the State of Rhode Island. You agree to the personal jurisdiction and venue of these courts.  Because some jurisdictions do not permit the choice of law, jurisdiction, or venue, these requirements may not apply to you.

EQUITABLE RELIEF

You acknowledge that any breach or threatened breach of these Terms of Use will result in irreparable harm for which damages would not be an adequate remedy, and, therefore, in addition to our rights and remedies otherwise available at law, we shall be entitled to seek immediate equitable relief, including injunctive relief, as appropriate.  If we seek any equitable remedies, we shall not be precluded or prevented from seeking remedies at law, nor shall we be deemed to have made an election of remedies.

SEVERABILITY

If any provision of these Terms of Use is held unenforceable or invalid under any applicable law or is so held by an applicable court decision, such unenforceability or invalidity will not render these Terms of Use unenforceable or invalid as a whole, and such provision will be changed and interpreted so as to best accomplish the objectives of such unenforceable or invalid provision within the limits of applicable law or the applicable court decisions.

WAIVER

Any waiver by us of a breach of any provision of these Terms of Use shall not operate as or be construed to be a waiver of any other breach of such provision or of any breach of any other provision of these Terms of Use.  Any such waiver must be in writing.  Failure by us to insist upon strict adherence to any term of these Terms of Use on one or more occasions shall not be considered a waiver or deprive us of the right to insist upon strict adherence to that term or any other term of these Terms of Use in the future.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions regarding these Terms of Use, please contact us by referring to the Contact Us mechanism provided in our Privacy Policy (link provided above).

Effective Date: December 2015

Updated: August 2023