1. About these terms
This website, darkbiome.bio, is operated by DarkBiome LLC, a Delaware limited liability company based in Alameda, California. By using the site you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.
The site is written for businesses and researchers considering a license. It sells nothing and takes no payment.
2. Information, not an offer
The site describes our work and the terms on which we generally license it. It is information only. Nothing on it is an offer to license, sell or supply anything, and the fees, milestones and royalty ranges shown are indicative. A binding arrangement exists only in a written agreement signed by DarkBiome LLC and the other party.
Nothing on the site is an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security or other interest in DarkBiome LLC.
3. Predictions, not measurements
All performance figures on this site are computational predictions unless a page says otherwise. That includes activities, temperature and pH ranges, stability, kinetics, yields and cost models. They have not been confirmed at the bench unless the page states that they have.
Our discovery work is computational, and we do not run a wet lab. A predicted figure is the output of a stated model or simulation: it is how we decide which candidates to put forward, and it is not a measurement of the protein. Models can be wrong in ways their own confidence scores do not show. Read each figure with the method the page gives for it. Testing a candidate in your own process is what the evaluation option is for.
4. Structures are predicted models
The three-dimensional structures shown on the site are predicted models. They are not experimentally determined structures, and distances, angles and contacts quoted from them are properties of the model. Computational confidence scores reflect the prediction method's estimate of its own reliability, not experimental validation.
5. No warranty
NO WARRANTY: PLEASE READ
The site and everything on it are provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, DarkBiome LLC disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement, and any warranty of accuracy or completeness.
We do not warrant that any candidate will express, fold, function, perform or scale as predicted, or that making, using or selling it will not infringe anyone else’s rights. Any warranty we give will be written into a signed agreement and nowhere else.
6. No reliance, and limitation of liability
Please do not rely on the site alone to make a licensing, investment, regulatory or technical decision. Check what matters to you against the data we provide under a confidentiality agreement, or through your own testing. The statements that bind us are the representations written into a signed agreement.
The site is free, and we receive nothing for its use. To the fullest extent the law allows, DarkBiome LLC is not liable for any loss arising from use of the site or from reliance on anything it says, including indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss and loss of profit, revenue, data or opportunity. This does not limit liability for fraud, willful misconduct or gross negligence, or any other liability that the law does not allow to be limited.
7. Market sizes and other estimates
Market and addressable-market (TAM) figures describe the size of an industry. They are not DarkBiome’s revenue and are not a forecast of it. They are estimates based on published industry analyses, not figures we have measured or independently verified; sources define the same market in different ways, and the figures may be out of date. Where a page names a source, that source’s definitions and date apply.
Cost savings and process economics on the site are modeled figures, with the same limits as any other prediction.
8. Forward-looking statements
Statements about how a candidate is predicted to perform, about our development plans, and about future patent filings or timing describe what we intend or expect as of the date they were written. They may turn out to be wrong, and we do not undertake to update them.
Among the things that could make them wrong: a candidate may not express, fold or perform at the bench as predicted; a provisional patent application may not lead to a granted patent; partners may decline to evaluate or license a candidate; and regulation and costs may change.
9. Intellectual property
The text, figures, analyses and predicted structure models on this site, and the selection and annotation of the sequences shown, belong to DarkBiome LLC or are used with permission. We reserve all rights not expressly granted here. Public sequence records remain subject to the terms of the databases they come from.
Viewing the site gives you no license or other right, whether express, implied, by estoppel or otherwise, under any patent, patent application, copyright, trade secret or trademark. You may read the site, link to it, and quote short passages with attribution.
Patent applications are pending where a page says so. A pending application is not a granted patent. Our three U.S. provisional applications cover the ice-nucleation work; nothing has been filed for the other candidates. A provisional application is not examined, and it lapses 12 months after filing unless a non-provisional application claiming it is filed.
10. No freedom-to-operate opinion
Statements on the site about sequence identity, such as a candidate having less than 15% sequence identity to a reference enzyme, describe a sequence comparison. They are not an opinion on freedom to operate, non-infringement, or the scope or validity of any patent. Patent claims can cover a function, a structure, a method of use or a process, whatever the sequence identity. Before making, using or selling a candidate, obtain your own freedom-to-operate advice.
11. What you send us
Please do not send confidential or proprietary information, yours or anyone else’s, through the forms or by email before a confidentiality agreement is signed. Until one is, we receive what you send without any duty of confidentiality.
We read inquiries to answer them, to judge fit, and to prepare a confidentiality agreement or term sheet. Sending us an inquiry gives us no ownership of, or license to, your intellectual property, and creates no partnership, obligation to pay, or obligation to license on either side. We develop our own candidates and may already be working on, or later develop, ideas similar to those in an inquiry. Our privacy notice describes how we handle the personal details in an inquiry.
12. Signed agreements come first
Sequences, coordinates, protein samples and other materials we supply under a confidentiality agreement or material transfer agreement are governed by that agreement, including its limits on use and on reverse engineering. If these terms and a signed agreement between you and DarkBiome LLC conflict, the signed agreement controls, including its choice of law and forum.
13. Third-party links and services
The site loads the 3Dmol.js viewer library from a third party and may link to other websites. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content or availability. Our privacy notice describes what they receive.
14. Governing law and venue
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute about the site or these terms will be brought in the state courts located in Alameda County, California, or the federal courts for the Northern District of California. A dispute under a signed agreement follows that agreement instead.
If any part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest still applies.
15. Changes
We may change these terms by updating this page and the effective date above. The version on this page when you use the site is the one that applies.
16. Contact
Questions about these terms: [email protected], or use the contact form.