Terms of Service & Intellectual Property

1. Acceptance of Terms & Scope of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) constitute a legally binding agreement between you (whether individually or on behalf of an enterprise entity, “you” or “User”) and ITẸ (“we”, “us”, or “our”), concerning your access to and use of itehq.org, including our research catalog, field notes repository, and commercial advisory interfaces.

If you do not agree with all of these Terms, you are expressly prohibited from using the platform and must discontinue use immediately.

2. Intellectual Property Rights & Ownership

Unless otherwise specified, all intellectual property rights in the platform and its materials—including but not limited to research texts, field note observations, behavioral frameworks (e.g., Diagnostic Elimination Audits, Customer Journey schematics, Risk Mitigation diagrams), visual designs, logos, typography arrangements, and underlying source code—are the exclusive property of ITẸ or licensed to us, protected under Nigerian copyright and trademark laws, the Copyright Act 2022, and international treaties.

3. Permitted Editorial Use & Strict Citation Requirements

We believe in advancing empirical knowledge regarding African commerce and consumer buying behavior. Therefore, you are permitted limited use of our research under the following strict conditions:

4. Nature of Research & Epistemic Disclaimer

Field notes and research publications on itehq.org represent qualitative observational inquiries and behavioral field analyses conducted in specific African urban retail and digital commerce contexts (e.g., Lagos, Abuja, Computer Village, WhatsApp business funnels).

These publications are provided solely for educational, analytical, and business intelligence purposes. Nothing on this platform constitutes formal legal, accounting, tax, investment, or regulatory advice. Commercial outcomes depend heavily upon execution, capitalization, supply-chain reliability, and changing consumer variables.

5. Commercial Advisory Inquiries & Client Confidentiality

When an enterprise submits a commercial puzzle or requests diagnostic advisory through our forms:

• Submitting an inquiry does not automatically create a binding advisory retainer or consulting relationship until formalized in an executed Statement of Work (SOW).
• ITẸ agrees to maintain the strict confidentiality of non-public sales metrics, customer logs, internal pricing structures, and vendor identities shared during inquiry or scoping discussions.
• We will never disclose proprietary company metrics or operational vulnerabilities to competitors.

6. User Conduct & Prohibited Activities

In utilizing the platform, you agree not to:

• Impersonate any individual, merchant, or organization in communications with our desk.
• Submit false, fraudulent, defamatory, or unlawful business inquiries or research disputes.
• Attempt to circumvent security controls, attack server infrastructure, or inject malicious scripts.
• Harvest email addresses or phone numbers displayed on the platform for unsolicited marketing.

7. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE PLATFORM, ITS CONTENT, RESEARCH BRIEFINGS, AND FIELD NOTES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR COMMERCIAL PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR FREEDOM FROM ERRORS.

We do not warrant that our research insights will guarantee revenue increases, elimination prevention, or commercial conversion velocity for any specific enterprise.

8. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, ITẸ, its founders, researchers, and partners shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages—including loss of sales, loss of profits, loss of data, loss of business goodwill, or commercial interruptions—arising out of or in connection with your reliance upon any publication, advisory diagnosis, or website content.

9. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless ITẸ, its officers, researchers, agents, and affiliates against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your violation of these Terms, unauthorized commercial exploitation of our research, or violation of third-party intellectual property rights.

10. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

These Terms and your use of itehq.org shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, without regard to its conflict of law principles.

11. Severability & Entire Agreement

If any provision of these Terms is deemed unlawful or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be severed without affecting the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions. These Terms, along with our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and ITẸ regarding your use of this platform.