General Conditions

1. Orders given to BOHEST are executed in accordance with the tariff valid at the time of execution of the order.

BOHEST may make execution of the order dependent on an advance payment. In case BOHEST has determined that an advance payment be made and the advance payment has not been received or has not been received in time by BOHEST to the full amount determined by BOHEST, BOHEST is not obliged to execute the order.

BOHEST shall execute an accepted order to the best of its knowledge and capabilities; it should, however, be able to count on the close cooperation of each principal especially regarding the latter's providing of all information available. In particular, when an application for an intellectual property right is to be filed, the principal must fully inform BOHEST of his intentions, of all measures already taken as well as of all prior filings and publications which he is aware of, referring to the same or a similar subject.

In the absence of any explicit instruction, BOHEST is neither obliged to make any prior art searches nor to determine whether there might be a potential conflict of interest with another of its principals.

2. Principals, including those acting on behalf of third parties, in particular lawyers and patent agents, explicitly acknowledge at the time of giving the order to BOHEST that they themselves are liable for the settlement of invoices related to the execution of the order given.

After the expiration of thirty days from the date of an outstanding invoice, the principal is in default and owes BOHEST an interest of 5%. All reasonable costs incurred in obtaining the principal's settlement of the invoice are at the expense of the principal and shall be charged to him by BOHEST.

3. BOHEST shall endeavour to execute an accepted order within short. However, in case no specific time limit has been duly agreed upon, BOHEST is not obliged to execute the order within a specific period of time.

4. Files which have been opened at BOHEST in connection with execution of an order are the property of BOHEST. They remain property of BOHEST even after a potential expiry of a mandate.

5. When documents prepared by BOHEST are submitted to the principal for consideration and comment, it is understood that the principal has to check their material and technical accuracy.
BOHEST is entitled to assume that the principal is in complete agreement with the entire contents of such documents, unless he states otherwise in due time.

Copyright is reserved by BOHEST for all documents prepared by BOHEST, in particular for specifications, texts and drawings.

6. As a rule, the principal shall be informed of official communications, especially official actions on the merits, and he is expected to provide instructions as to how the official communications are to be responded to.

The principal can make enquiries with BOHEST as to the status of the case to prevent any potential drawbacks, in case no news is received.

7. When a particular term must be observed, the principal must provide his instructions early enough so that the work necessary for attending to the matter can be carried out with due care.

The principal must also monitor time limits which he has been informed of by BOHEST.

If the principal's instructions are not received in good time before expiry of the term, BOHEST may apply for an extension of the term where this is possible and if, in the opinion of BOHEST, circumstances do not speak to the contrary. However, in such cases BOHEST also may, at its own discretion, take urgent measures to observe the term. In the absence of specific instructions, BOHEST is in no case obliged to take extraordinary measures to extend a term.

When orders or instructions are given only shortly before expiry of a term or too late, BOHEST shall not be held liable for not having executed the order nor for not having dealt with the instructions in due time.

8. Unless specified to the contrary, an order given to BOHEST is not cancelled due to decease or incapacity to act in business of the principal.

9. BOHEST is authorized to call upon its staff and upon third parties in order to execute orders given to BOHEST. BOHEST is responsible only for supervision and control of the work of its own staff as well as for due care in the choice of a third party and for accuracy in its instruction.

10. If, for a specific intellectual property right, BOHEST has resigned from representation, it is neither obliged to forward official or private communications, which it might still receive, nor is it obliged to consider them or to reply to them. This also holds when the principal has given instructions to abandon an intellectual property right or to stop docketing or monitoring it.

11. An order to file an application for an intellectual property right also includes the order to perform the subsequent proceedings and to represent the case in these proceedings.

12. Where terms have to be observed to maintain an intellectual property right in force, communication of such terms is made by BOHEST as an offer. It is understood that the principal must check the material accuracy of these communications.

If the principal wishes that a certain intellectual property right be maintained, and if he does not receive such an offer from BOHEST in due course before expiry of the term, he should give the necessary order to maintain the intellectual property right by himself.

The principal's instructions concerning the maintenance or the abandonment of an intellectual property right must be complete and accurate.

Orders to pay fees for the maintenance of an intellectual property right must be executed by BOHEST only if they have been given in writing and, if an advance payment has been requested, only upon receipt by BOHEST of both the advance payment and the order to pay the fees. If the order and the requested advance payment in its full amount are not received by BOHEST in time, BOHEST may conclude that the principal wishes to abandon the intellectual property right.

13. All communications shall be sent by BOHEST to the last address given to BOHEST by the principal. They are thus considered as having been legally and validly dispatched.

14. In case of discrepancies between the German and English versions of these General Conditions, the German version shall be binding.

15. Any disputes between the principal and BOHEST shall be submitted exclusively to the competent courts of Basel. Swiss law is to be applied.