General Terms and Conditions of Sale and Delivery of
GENEART AG, Josef-Engert-Straße 11, D-93053 Regensburg (hereinafter referred to as GENEART)
§ 1 General.
1. These General Terms of Sale and Delivery shall be valid for all contracts concluded between the customer and GENEART on delivery and sale of the products manufactured and/or delivered by GENEART.
2. These General Terms and Conditions shall apply exclusively. No adverse or altered terms or conditions of the customer shall be binding, unless explicitly agreed by GENEART. GENEART herewith rejects any adverse or altered term or condition of the customer even in the event that GENEART performs the services and/or delivers products without any reservation in knowledge of adverse or altered terms or conditions of the customer provided to GENEART by confirmation letter or otherwise.
3. These General Terms and Conditions shall only apply with merchants in the course of business and public legal entities such as universities and public research institutes pursuant to § 310 section 1 German Civil Code.
§ 2 Offers and Specifications.
1. The offers of GENEART are not binding, unless expressly stated otherwise in the order confirmation.
2. Purchase orders of the customer shall be binding.
3. All contracts between GENEART and the customer on delivery and sale of the products manufactured and/or delivered by GENEART shall only become effective upon written confirmation via email, mail or facsimile of the purchase order or by delivery on the part of GENEART.
4. GENEART reserves the right to withdraw from accepting the purchase order within two (2) business days following the date of receipt of the purchase order.
5. The product details mentioned in the catalogues and on the websites of GENEART do not exactly describe their nature and are, therefore, not binding.
6. Customary deviations from the data on measures, weights, nature and quality of the products and such deviations usual in the line of optimizing and synthesising genes, gene variants, gene libraries, performing subcloning services and plasmid preparation and such deviations being not unreasonable for the customer are reserved and shall not authorize to claim any warranties.
7. GENEART is entitled to provide services and/or any product via sub-contractors.
§ 3 Delivery.
1. Observance of agreed time limits shall be subject to due receipt of all documents, necessary authorisations and releases to be supplied by the customer as well as clarification of all technical issues.
2. GENEART reserves the right to partial shipment as far as this is reasonably acceptable to the customer. Each partial shipment shall be deemed to be a separate transaction according to these terms and conditions, in particular with respect to payments, transfer of liability and the warranty period.
3. Adherence to delivery commitments on the part of GENEART is subject to the customer having timely and duly fulfilled its obligations.
4. In case the customer shall be in default of acceptance or shall violate any other contributory obligations, GENEART shall be entitled to demand the loss arising to GENEART including any additional expenses. In such case, also the risk of accidental loss or of accidental deterioration of the products shall pass on to the customer at the time the customer is in default of acceptance.
§ 4 Acceptance.
If acceptance is provided for by law, the customer shall be obliged to carry it out; acceptance may only be refused on account of substantial deficiencies. If the customer has not carried out acceptance within a deadline of 7 days after receipt of the products provided by GENEART, acceptance shall be deemed to be effected.
§ 5 Transfer of Liability.
1. Unless not otherwise agreed, delivery shall be effected "ex works" Regensburg (Incoterms 2000).
2. The risk of accidental loss or of accidental deterioration of the products shall pass on to the customer, as soon as GENEART has passed on the goods to the carrier.
§ 6 Prices and Terms of Payment.
1. The prices are inclusive packing costs plus legal value added tax. The shipping costs shall be borne by the customer, unless otherwise agreed. All prices are in EURO, unless another currency has been agreed.
2. The prices valid on the day of the purchase order shall be valid. In case of substantial increases of costs, the prices are subject to alteration. In case of an increase, GENEART shall notify the customer at the latest four weeks before shipment of the products. In such case, the customer shall be entitled to withdraw from the contract within eight days after service of the notification.
3. Invoices issued by GENEART shall be paid net without discount at the latest within 14 days after the date of invoice. The customer shall be in default without a separate reminder 30 days after maturity. In case the customer shall be delayed in payment, GENEART charges default interests from maturity in the amount of 8 % points beyond the basis rate. Upon corresponding evidence, GENEART may also claim higher damage caused by default.
4. Bills of exchange are not accepted as means of payment. Cheques are only accepted on account of payment. Payment is deemed to be effected only from that day, at which GENEART can dispose of the invoiced amount without any loss.
5. On account of its own claims, the customer is entitled to set off only as far as its claims have become res judicata, have not been disputed or have been admitted by GENEART. Further, the customer is entitled to claim any right of retention only inasmuch as its counterclaim is based on the identical contractual relationship. Moreover, assignment of claims by the customer towards GENEART shall be excluded.
§ 7 Cancellation of orders.
1. If the customer wants to cancel the purchase order, the following charges of a purchase order shall be payable by the customer: For gene synthesis orders: 50% of gene synthesis price after start of oligonucleotide production, 75% of gene synthesis price after start of assembly of gene sub-fragments, 100% of gene synthesis price after start of assembly of gene subfragments. For gene variant orders: 25% of gene variant price after oligonucleotide(s) has (have) been ordered, 100% of gene variant price after start of gene variant production process. For gene library construction: 25% of gene library price after oligonucleotides for gene library have been ordered, 100% of gene library price after start of gene library production process. For subcloning services: 100% of subcloning price after start of subcloning of gene in customer vector. For plasmid preparation services: 100% of plasmid preparation price after start of plasmid preparation process.
2. GENEART reserves the right to step back or cancel a customer purchase order for any reason and / or to deliver subfragments of a gene if gene assembly is not possible for any reason.
§ 8 Warranties and Restriction of Use.
1. GENEART guarantees 100% sequence fidelity between ordered and synthesized / delivered gene sequence.
2 The products manufactured and/or delivered by GENEART are for end customers only. The resale of products manufactured and/or distributed by GENEART requires the prior written consent of GENEART.
3. Unless otherwise agreed, the products manufactured and/or delivered by GENEART serve for laboratory and scientific research only. Use of the products for human medical or diagnostic purposes or as medicine, shall only be admitted, if such use is permitted according to the legal provisions the customer and the user are bound to, and, as far as required, if approval has been given by the competent authority. In accordance with § 8, any liability shall be excluded for damages based on improper use or on application of the products beyond the field of application as described under paragraph 1, in particular on application in the household with regard to persons or animals.
4. Customers using the products manufactured and/or delivered by GENEART in industrial production, will do this at their own risk. As GENEART is not in the position to foresee or control the possible procedures and processes for such industrial use of its products, here, in accordance with § 8 any warranty or liability shall be excluded. In such cases, the directions for use issued by GENEART are only to be considered as recommendations with no binding force.
5. GENEART has to be notified of any defects of delivered products or variations in quantity or faulty deliveries at the latest 1 week after receipt of the products. Hidden defects are to be reported immediately after their detection. If these time limits for claim are not observed, any other existing warranty claims shall be ruled out. Even hidden defects can no longer be asserted, if one (1) year has passed since acceptance.
6. In case of legitimate notices of defect, GENEART will subsequently deliver shortages or at its choice will remedy the defect or deliver a substitute. In the event remedy of the defect should fail or the substitute delivery should be defective, too, according to legal provisions, the customer may rescind the contract or may demand reduction in price. The warranty shall be ruled out in case of improper use and processing of the products manufactured by GENEART.
7. Warranty claims shall be statute-barred within one year. The limitation period shall start to run when the property is delivered or accepted, respectively.
§ 9 Damages.
1. Any claims for damages are excluded independently from the type of breach of duty, including tortious acts, as far as this is no intentional or gross negligent acting. In cases other than intentional actions, the amount of damage shall be limited to the typical and foreseeable damage.
2. In the event of negligent breach of material contractual obligations GENEART shall be liable for any negligence, but only up to the amount of damage which is typical and foreseeable. Any claims resulting from lost profits saved expenses, from claims for damages of third parties as well as from any other direct or indirect consequential damages may not be demanded, unless a feature warranted by GENEART exactly serves to safeguard the customer against such damages.
3. The limitations on and exclusions of liability according to the above paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply for claims, which have been caused by fraudulent conduct, in case of liability for warranted features, for claims according to the Product Liability Law as well as for damages caused by injury of body, life or health.
4. As far as liability is excluded or limited under the above paragraphs, this shall also apply for employees, representatives or vicarious agents of GENEART.
§ 10 Reservation of title.
1. All DNA sequences generated by GENEART shall retain the exclusive property of GENEART until the customer has launched a purchase order regarding the respective generated DNA sequence to GENEART and has settled the invoice for the respective purchase order. The customer shall not use the so generated gene sequences in any way for any reasons until the customer has launched a purchase order regarding the respective generated DNA sequence to GENEART and has settled the invoice for the respective purchase order.
2. GENEART shall retain title to all products manufactured and/or delivered until the customer has settled all claims resulting from its business relation to GENEART. The customer undertakes to properly handle the reserved products and neither to pledge nor to assign it by way of security.
3. Processing or transformation of the reserved products by the customer shall always be effected for GENEART. The expectant right of the customer to the reserved products continues with the transformed subject. If the reserved products are processed with other objects not belonging to GENEART, GENEART shall acquire co-ownership to the new subject in the proportion of the objective value of its reserved goods to the other processed objects at the time of processing. Incidentally, for the subject created by processing the same shall apply as for the reserved goods.
4. If the reserved products are inseparably mixed with subjects not belonging to GENEART, GENEART shall acquire co-ownership to the new subject in the proportion of the objective value of its reserved products to the other mixed objects at the time of mixture. If mixture is effected in such manner that the subject of the customer is to be considered as the main subject, it is deemed as agreed upon that the customer assigns pro rata co-ownership to GENEART. The customer shall hold in custody the created sole ownership or co-ownership for GENEART.
5. Provided that the value of the securities which are due to GENEART shall exceed the amount of its claims by more than 10%, GENEART is obliged to release to an adequate extent; the selection of the securities to be released is incumbent on GENEART. If the customer shall be behind schedule, GENEART shall be entitled to take in custody the delivered products on the basis of its reservation of title until the customer effected payment. The customer shall bear the costs of custody. Revocation of the contract in such a case is only given, if GENEART explicitly declares so. With fulfilment of the claims of GENEART, including all side claims, the securities shall pass over to the customer without particular reassignment.
§ 11 Intellectual Property Rights; Copyrights.
The customer is solely liable for infringement of intellectual property rights or copyrights of third parties by execution of its purchase order and the use of the products manufactured and/or delivered by GENEART. The customer has to release GENEART upon first request from all claims of third parties based on such infringement of intellectual property rights or copyrights.
§ 12 Place of Performance, Court Venue, Governing Law, Language of the Contract, Partial Nullity.
1. Provided that the customer is a trader, subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 the place of business of GENEART (Regensburg) shall be the exclusive place of venue. However, GENEART is entitled to bring any action against the customer also before the court of its general venue.
2. Unless otherwise agreed, the place of performance shall be the place of business of GENEART (Regensburg).
3. Exclusively German law shall be applicable for the contractual relationship. The provisions of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) shall not apply.
4. The invalidity or unenforceability of one of the provisions or terms set forth under the subject General Terms and Conditions or under any other agreement, shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions or terms.