AFFILIATE AGREEMENT
This Agreement contains the complete terms and conditions that apply to an individual's or entity's participation in the WatchCo Affiliates Program (the "Program"). As used in this Agreement, "we" means WatchCo,
and "you" means the applicant. "Site" means a World Wide Web site and,
depending on the context, refers to any site that you will link to our
site (and which you will identify in your Program application).
- Enrollment in the Program
To begin the enrollment process, you will submit a complete Program
application via our site. We will evaluate your application in good
faith and will notify you of your acceptance or rejection. We may
reject your application if we determine (in our sole discretion) that
your site is unsuitable for the Program. Unsuitable sites include those
that:
- promote sexually explicit materials
- promote violence
- promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age
- promote illegal activities
- include "WatchCo" or variations or misspellings thereof in their domain names
- otherwise violate intellectual property rights
If we reject your application, you are welcome to reapply to the
Program at any time. You should also note that if we accept your
application and your site is thereafter determined (in our sole
discretion) to be unsuitable for the Program, we may terminate this
Agreement.
- Links on Your Site
Once you have been notified that your site has been accepted into the
Program, you may provide on your site one or more of the following
types of links to our site:
- Product/Service
Links: You may select our Product/Service to list on your site. You
will display on your site a short description, review, or other
reference. You will be responsible for the content, style, and
placement of these references. You will provide a Special Link (as
defined below) from each product/service reference on your site to the
corresponding WatchCo website. Each such link will
connect to our web site. You may add or delete the product/service (and
related links) from your site at any time without our approval.
- General Link to WatchCo Home Page: You may provide a general link on your site to our home page at www.WatchCo.com.
- WatchCo Recommend Link: If your site qualifies (as determined by us in our sole discretion), you may place a WatchCo Recommends link on your site to enable WatchCo to serve recommended content based on your site's specialty or sales history directly to visitors to your site.
We
will provide you with guidelines and graphical artwork to use in
linking to our home page. To permit accurate tracking, reporting, and
referral fee accrual, we will provide you with special "tagged" link
formats to be used in all links between your site and our site. You
must ensure that each of the links between your site and our site
properly utilizes such special link formats. Links to our site placed
on your site pursuant to this Agreement and which properly utilize such
special link formats are referred to as "Special Links." You will earn
referral fees only with respect to activity on our site occurring
directly through Special Links; we will not be liable to you with
respect to any failure by you to use Special Links, including to the
extent that such failure may result in any reduction of amounts that
would otherwise be paid to you pursuant to this Agreement.
You acknowledge that, by participating in the Affiliates Program and placing any of the above links within your site, WatchCo
may receive information from or about visitors to your site or
communications between your site and those visitors. Your participation
in the WatchCo program constitutes your specific and unconditional consent to and authorization for WatchCo
access to, receipt, storage, use, and disclosure of any and all such
information, consistent with the policies and procedures set forth in
the WatchCo Privacy Notices.
- Order Processing
We will process Signup applications placed by prospects who follow
Special Links from your site to our site. We reserve the right to
reject Signups that do not comply with any requirements that we may
establish periodically. We will be responsible for all aspects of
servicing and fufilment. Among other things, we will prepare order
forms, process payments, cancellations, and returns, and handle
customer service. We will track Signups from Qualified Prospects who
useSpecial Links from your site to our site and will make available to
you reports summarizing this activity. The form, content, and frequency
of the reports may vary from time to time in our discretion.
- Referral Fees
We will pay you (in accordance with Sections 5 and 8 below) referral
fees on certain Qualified Prospect Signups. For a Signup to be eligible
to earn a referral fee, the prospect must click-through a Special Link
from your site to our site, Signup to be a WatchCo supplier and be approved by WatchCo.
You may not Signup to WatchCo
during sessions initiated through the links on your site for your own
use, for resale or commercial use of any kind. This includes Signups
for clients or on behalf of clients or Signups to be used by you or
your friends, relatives, or Affiliates in any manner. Such Signup may
result (in our sole discretion) in the withholding of referral fees or
the termination of this Agreement. Signups that are eligible to earn
referral fees under the rules set forth above are referred to as
"Qualified Prospects."
In addition, you may not: (a)
directly or indirectly offer any person or entity any consideration or
incentive (including, without limitation, payment of money (including
any rebate), or granting of any discount or other benefit) for using
Special Links on your site to access our site (e.g., by implementing
any "rewards" program for persons or entities who use Special Links on
your site to access our site); (b) read, intercept, record, redirect,
interpret, or fill in the contents of any electronic form or other
materials submitted to us by any person or entity; (c) in any way
modify, redirect, suppress, or substitute the operation of any button,
link, or other interactive feature of our site; (d) make any orders or
subscription requests, or engage in other transactions of any kind on
our site on behalf of any third party, or authorize, assist, or
encourage any other person or entity to do so; (e) take any action that
could reasonably cause any customer confusion as to our relationship
with you, or as to the site on which any functions or transactions
(e.g., search, order, browse, and so on) are occurring; or (f) post or
serve any advertisements or promotional content around or in
conjunction with the display of our site (e.g., through any "framing"
technique or technology or pop-up windows), or assist, authorize, or
encourage any third party to take any such action. If we determine, in
our sole discretion, that you have engaged in any of the foregoing
activities, we may (without limiting any other rights or remedies
available to us) withhold any referral fees otherwise payable to you
under this Agreement and/or terminate this Agreement.
- Referral Fee Schedule
You will earn referral fees based on Qualifying Revenues according to
referral fee schedules to be established by us. "Qualifying Revenues"
are revenues derived by us fromproduct sales to third parties that
satisfy the requirements of Section 4, excluding costs for shipping,
handling, gift-wrapping, taxes separately stated and charged to the
customer, service charges, rebates, credit card processing fees,
returns and bad debt. The current referral fee schedule is 7% per sale.
- Referral Fee Payment
We will pay you referral fees on a monthly basis. Approximately 5
business days following the end of each calendar month, we will send
you a payment for the referral fees accrued 30 days or more prior to
that month, however, if the referral fees payable to you for any
calendar month are less than $50.00, we will hold payment until the
total amount due is at least $50.00 or (if earlier) until this
Agreement is terminated. In calculating referral fees, we will deduct
the corresponding referral fee from your next monthly payment if a
Product that generated a referral fee is returned by the customer. If
there is no subsequent payment, we will send you a bill for the
referral fee. If payment is via check, we will also deduct a $2.00
check fee from each check as a processing fee.
- Policies and Pricing
Qualified Prospects who Signup to WatchCo through this Program will be deemed to be clients of WatchCo. WatchCo rules, policies, and operating procedures and pricing will apply to those clients and all their WatchCo
related activities. We may change our policies and operating procedures
at any time. For example, we will determine the fees to be charged for
services rendered. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to
present accurate information, but we cannot guarantee the availability
of any particular fee or service.
- Identifying Yourself as an Affiliate
You
may not issue any press release with respect to this Agreement or your
participation in the Program; such action may result in your
termination from the Program. In addition, you may not in
any manner misrepresent or embellish the relationship between us and
you, or express or imply any relationship or affiliation between us and
you or any other person or entity except as expressly permitted by this
Agreement (including by expressing or implying that WatchCo supports, sponsors, endorses, or contributes money to any charity or other cause).
- Limited License
We grant you a nonexclusive, revocable right to use the graphic image
and text described in Section 8 and such other text or images for which
we grant express permission, solely for the purpose of identifying your
site as a Program participant and to assist in generating Qualified
Prospect Signups. You may not modify the graphic image or text, or any
other of our images, in any way. We reserve all of our rights in the
graphic image and text, any other images, our trade names and
trademarks, and all other intellectual property rights. You agree to
follow our Trademark Guidelines, as those guidelines may change from
time to time. We may revoke your license at any time by giving you
written notice.
- Responsibility for Your Site
You will be solely responsible for the development, operation, and
maintenance of your site and for all materials that appear on your
site. For example, you will be solely responsible for:
- the technical operation of your site and all related equipment
- creating and posting service descriptions on your site and linking those descriptions to our catalog
- the
accuracy and appropriateness of materials posted on your site
(including, among other things, all service-related materials)
- ensuring
that materials posted on your site do not violate or infringe upon the
rights of any third party (including, for example, copyrights,
trademarks, privacy, or other personal or proprietary rights)
- ensuring that materials posted on your site are not libelous or otherwise illegal
- ensuring
that your site accurately and adequately discloses, either through a
privacy policy or otherwise, how you collect, use, store, and disclose
data collected from visitors, including, where applicable, that third
parties (including advertisers) may serve content and/or advertisements
and collect information directly from visitors and may place or
recognize cookies on visitors' browsers.
We disclaim all liability for these matters. Further, you will
indemnify and hold us harmless from all claims, damages, and expenses
(including, without limitation, attorneys' fees) relating to the
development, operation, maintenance, and contents of your site.
- Term of the Agreement
The term of this Agreement will begin upon our acceptance of your
Program application and will end when terminated by either party.
Either you or we may terminate this Agreement at any time, with or
without cause, by giving the other party written notice of termination.
Upon the termination of this Agreement for any reason, you will
immediately cease use of, and remove from your site, all links to our
site, and all WatchCo
trademarks, trade dress, and logos, and all other materials provided by
or on behalf of us to you pursuant hereto or in connection with the
Program. You are eligible to earn referral fees only on Qualified and
approved Prospect Signups that occur during the term.We may withhold
your final payment for a reasonable time to ensure that the correct
amount is paid.
- Modification
We may
modify any of the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement, at
any time and in our sole discretion, by posting a change notice or a
new agreement on our site. Modifications may include, for example,
changes in the scope of available referral fees, referral fee
schedules, payment procedures, and Program rules. IF ANY MODIFICATION
IS UNACCEPTABLE TO YOU, YOUR ONLY RECOURSE IS TO TERMINATE THIS
AGREEMENT. YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE PROGRAM FOLLOWING OUR
POSTING OF A CHANGE NOTICE OR NEW AGREEMENT ON OUR SITE WILL CONSTITUTE
BINDING ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHANGE.
- Relationship of Parties
You and we are independent contractors, and nothing in this Agreement
will create any partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, sales
representative, or employment relationship between the parties. You
will have no authority to make or accept any offers or representations
on our behalf. You will not make any statement, whether on your site or
otherwise, that reasonably would contradict anything in this Section.
- Limitation of Liability
We will not be liable for indirect, special, or consequential damages
(or any loss of revenue, profits, or data) arising in connection with
this Agreement or the Program, even if we have been advised of the
possibility of such damages. Further, our aggregate liability arising
with respect to this Agreement and the Program will not exceed the
total referral fees paid or payable to you under this Agreement.
- Disclaimers
We make no express or implied warranties or representations with
respect to the Program or any services sold through the Program
(including, without limitation, warranties of fitness, merchantability,
noninfringement, or any implied warranties arising out of a course of
performance, dealing, or trade usage). In addition, we make no
representation that the operation of our site will be uninterrupted or
error-free, and we will not be liable for the consequences of any
interruptions or errors.
- Independent Investigation
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL ITS
TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT WE MAY AT ANY TIME (DIRECTLY
OR INDIRECTLY) SOLICIT CUSTOMER REFERRALS ON TERMS THAT MAY DIFFER FROM
THOSE CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT OR OPERATE WEB SITES THAT ARE SIMILAR
TO OR COMPETE WITH YOUR WEB SITE. YOU HAVE INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATED THE
DESIRABILITY OF PARTICIPATING IN THE PROGRAM AND ARE NOT RELYING ON ANY
REPRESENTATION, GUARANTEE, OR STATEMENT OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THIS
AGREEMENT.
- Arbitration
Any dispute relating in any way to this Agreement (including any actual
or alleged breach hereof), any transactions or activities under this
Agreement or your relationship with us or any of our affiliates shall
be submitted to confidential arbitration in California, except that, to
the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate our
intellectual property rights, we may seek injunctive or other
appropriate relief in any state or federal court in the state of
California (and you consent to non-exclusive jurisdiction and venue in
such courts) or any other court of competent jurisdiction. Arbitration
under this agreement shall be conducted under the rules then prevailing
of the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator's award shall
be binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent
jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, no
arbitration under this Agreement shall be joined to an arbitration
involving any other party subject to this Agreement, whether through
class arbitration proceedings or otherwise.
- Miscellaneous
This Agreement will be governed by the laws of the United States and
the state of California , without reference to rules governing choice
of laws. You may not assign this Agreement, by operation of law or
otherwise, without our prior written consent. Subject to that
restriction, this Agreement will be binding on, inure to the benefit
of, and be enforceable against the parties and their respective
successors and assigns. Our failure to enforce your strict performance
of any provision of this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of our
right to subsequently enforce such provision or any other provision of
this Agreement.
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