Terms of Service
Effective 27 July 2026. Operator: Pentonym, Inc., a Delaware corporation, principal office 133 Ray Court, Fremont, CA 94536, USA (“Pentonym”, “we”, “us”, “our”).
Pentonym screens a brand name across trademarks, domains, handles, web use, and cultural flags, and gives you a three-state signal — PROCEED / DO_NOT_PROCEED / CANNOT_DETERMINE — with a cryptographically signed receipt you can verify yourself. Coverage is US and EU, not worldwide. Pentonym is a screening signal, not legal advice — we are not a law firm and we are not your attorney. If you go on to file a trademark, an independent attorney you engage directly does the legal work and bills you directly; we only charge a technology platform fee. Don’t misuse the Service or present a verdict as a legal opinion. If we have a dispute, we’ll arbitrate it in Delaware — except IP fights and small claims, which go to court.
The terms we use
Service — the Pentonym website, API, hosted MCP server, and related features. Verdict — a screening result and its signed receipt. Account — your Pentonym account and API key. You — the person or entity agreeing to these Terms.
Your account and your key
You must be able to form a binding contract and provide accurate information. You are responsible for your API key and all activity under it — keep it secret and tell us promptly (legal@pentonym.com) if it is compromised. One person or entity per account unless we agree otherwise in writing.
What a Verdict is, and is not
A Verdict is a signal generated from public registers and web sources at a point in time. It is not a legal opinion, a clearance opinion, a search report certified by counsel, or a guarantee that a name is available, registrable, or free of infringement risk. CANNOT_DETERMINE means a gating question could not be resolved — treat it as unknown, never as clear. The signed receipt attests to what we returned, not to the correctness of any legal conclusion. You are responsible for how you use a Verdict, and for obtaining advice from qualified counsel before adopting a name in commerce.
What we do and don’t promise
We aim for accurate, timely screening and high availability, but we do not promise the Service is error-free, complete, uninterrupted, or that any name is safe to use. Sources may be incomplete, delayed, or change. We may modify, add, or remove features.
Don’t misuse the Service
Don’t: use the Service unlawfully or to infringe others’ rights; break our security, metering, or rate limits; scrape or bulk-extract to build a competing clearance dataset; resell or white-label except under a written partner agreement; or present a Verdict as a legal opinion or our endorsement of a name. We may suspend or terminate access for violations.
The two-invoice structure
Where the Service facilitates a trademark filing, Pentonym acts only as a technology and operations platform. Legal services are provided by an independent, licensed attorney whom you engage directly, who bills you directly and is your attorney of record; government fees (e.g., USPTO) are passed through at cost and collected by the attorney, never marked up by us. Pentonym does not practice law, does not provide legal services, is not your attorney of record, and forms no attorney–client relationship with you (consistent with ABA Model Rule 5.4). You engage and pay the attorney directly.
Fees
Fees are shown before purchase and processed by our payment processor (currently Stripe); we do not store full card numbers. Pentonym charges only its own platform fees, subscriptions, and credits — never the attorney’s legal fee or government fees. Platform fees are non-refundable except as required by law or stated by us in writing. Subscriptions renew until cancelled. You are responsible for taxes other than our income taxes.
Ending your use
You may stop using the Service anytime. We may suspend or terminate for breach, legal risk, non-payment, or discontinuation. Sections that by their nature should survive (1, 3, 4, 6–13) survive termination.
Disclaimers
THE SERVICE AND EVERY VERDICT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
Limitation of liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, PENTONYM WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM OR US $100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations; there, they apply to the extent permitted.
Indemnification
You will indemnify Pentonym against third-party claims arising from your use of the Service or a Verdict, your content, or your violation of these Terms or law — except to the extent caused by our own breach.
How disputes are resolved
12.1 Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflicts-of-laws principles. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.
12.2 Mandatory arbitration. Any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Commercial Arbitration Rules (or, for consumer claims, the Consumer Arbitration Rules). The seat of arbitration is Wilmington, Delaware. The arbitrator may award any relief a court could.
12.3 IP & small-claims carve-out. Either party may bring an action in the state or federal courts located in Delaware seeking injunctive or equitable relief to protect intellectual property or confidential information, or may bring a qualifying claim in small-claims court.
12.4 Class-action waiver. Disputes are resolved on an individual basis only — no class, collective, or representative actions. If this waiver is unenforceable, the entire arbitration provision (12.2) is void and disputes go to the courts in §12.3.
12.5 Your local consumer rights still apply. If you are a consumer whose law grants rights that cannot be waived by contract — including consumers in the EU, the UK, and certain US states — nothing here deprives you of those rights or of any right to proceed in your local courts where that law so provides.
12.6 Opt-out. You may opt out of arbitration by emailing legal@pentonym.com with the subject “Arbitration Opt-Out” within thirty (30) days of first agreeing to these Terms.
If we disagree, we’ll usually settle it through arbitration — private and faster than court. Two exceptions: IP fights and emergencies go to court, and you can use small-claims court. You can also opt out of arbitration within 30 days.
The rest
Entire agreement; no waiver by non-enforcement; severability (an unenforceable term is limited, not the whole contract); assignment by us in a corporate transaction; notices to legal@pentonym.com and to the email on your account; talk to us first — before formal proceedings, contact legal@pentonym.com, since most problems are faster to fix than to litigate. Changes: we may revise these Terms; material changes take effect on the new Effective date (with at least 30 days’ notice to paid subscribers, and on next login for free users), and continued use is acceptance.
Reach us
Pentonym, Inc., 133 Ray Court, Fremont, CA 94536, USA · legal@pentonym.com
See also our Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice.