Terms of Service

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE.

The Research and Benchmark Institute (RBI) offers the IFMA Online Community and non-IFMA member its corresponding Resource Advantage Platform via single document purchase and/or subscription package, to you, the user, conditioned upon your acceptance of all of the terms, conditions, policies and notices stated on the Website. By using the Website and benchmarking tool, you signify your assent to these Terms and Conditions and any subsequent modifications. RBI may revise these Terms and Conditions from time to time by updating this posting, with the new terms taking effect on the date of posting. You should review these Terms and Conditions every time you use this Website as they are binding upon you.

Personal and Noncommercial Use

IFMA’s Online Community site is for your personal and noncommercial use. As a condition to your continued use of the Website, you warrant to RBI that you will not use the Website for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms and Conditions..

Contributing Content to RBI

All users are encouraged to contribute information to RBI. All contributions once analyzed and verified will be accepted for incorporation where appropriate within the Resource Advantage Platform Website provided they adhere to these rules:
  1. You agree not knowingly submit any false, fraudulent, misleading, discriminatory, defamatory, abusive, obscene, threatening, racially offensive, sexually explicit or illegal material to the Website.
  2. You may not submit information that is libelous or defamatory or that discloses private or personal matters concerning any company or individual.
  3. You may not post information or links that are obscene or pornographic.
  4. You may not contribute information or pictures that violate the property rights of others (including intellectual property rights), including unauthorized copyrighted text, images or programs, trade or service marks, trade secrets or other confidential proprietary information, and trademarks or service marks used in an infringing fashion.
  5. Content contributions solely focused on the promotion of commercial events or businesses are not permitted.
  6. You represent that the information you contribute is your own, is licensed to be uploaded and downloaded by RBI and/or supporting contractors, and is otherwise free of copyright or other restrictions. You also grant RBI an irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to redistribute or republish the information in any medium or aggregate form.
  7. You may not upload viruses or malicious code or do anything that could disable, overburden or impair the proper working or appearance of the Platform.

Copyrights

When you share, post, or upload content that is covered by intellectual property rights, you grant RBI a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content.
Except as otherwise expressly provided in these Terms and Conditions, you may not copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, rewrite, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any material contained on the Website without the prior consent of the copyright owner. You agree not to modify any documents, graphics, images or other material found on this Website.
You may, however make single copies of materials displayed on the Resource Advantage Platform Website for your own personal and noncommercial use only, provided any copies include the copyright and other notices displayed with the materials on the Website. You may not distribute such copies to others, whether or not for a charge or other consideration, without prior written permission from RBI or the copyright owner of the copied material.
None of the material contained on the Website may be reverse-engineered, disassembled, decompiled, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, translated into any language or computer language, retransmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photo reproduction, recordation or otherwise), resold or redistributed without the prior written consent of RBI. All content of RBI is Copyright IFMA. All rights reserved.
Neither RBI nor its employees, agents, third party information providers, merchants, licensors or the like warrant that the Website or its operation will be accurate, reliable, uninterrupted or error-free. If your use of the RBI Resource Advantage Platform Website results in the need for servicing or replacing property, material, equipment or data, RBI is not responsible for those costs. No agent or representative has the authority to create any warranty regarding the Website on behalf of RBI or IFMA. RBI reserves the right to change or discontinue at any time any aspect or feature of the Website.
RBI or IFMA does not assume any liability for the contents of any material provided on the Website. Reliance on any information presented on the Website, other than that which you provided (if you provided any), is at your own risk. IFMA reserves the right to change or discontinue any aspect or feature of the Website at any time.
You acknowledge that, in connection with the Website, information will be transmitted over local exchange, interexchange and Internet backbone carrier lines and through routers, switches and other devices owned, maintained and serviced by third party local exchange and long distance carriers, utilities, Internet service providers and others, all of which are beyond the control and jurisdiction of RBI or IFMA. Accordingly, RBI assumes no liability for or relating to the delay, failure, interruption or corruption of any data or other information transmitted in connection with use of the Website.
WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, EVERYTHING ON RBI’s RESOURCE ADVANTAGE PLATFORM WEBSITE IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. RBI MAKES NO WARRANTIES ABOUT THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, COMPLETENESS OR TIMELINESS OF THE WEB SITE CONTENT, SOFTWARE TEXT, GRAPHICS, AND LINKS, OR ABOUT RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WEBSITE OR RBI SERVICES.

Limitation of Liability

IN NO EVENT SHALL RBI OR ANY THIRD PARTIES MENTIONED AT THE WEBSITE BE LIABLE FOR ANY COSTS, DAMAGES AND EXPENSES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, HEALTH PROBLEMS, INCIDENTAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST DATA OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) RESULTING FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE RBI RESOURCE ADVANTAGE PLATFORM WEBSITE OR THE CONTENT OF THE WEBSITE WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT RBI IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. RBI SHALL BE LIABLE TO YOU ONLY FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT AND ONLY TO THE EXTENT OF ACTUAL DAMAGES INCURRED BY YOU, NOT TO EXCEED U.S. $100.00 (ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS). BECAUSE SOME STATES AND COUNTRIES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. REMEDIES UNDER THIS AGREEMENT ARE EXCLUSIVE AND ARE LIMITED TO THOSE EXPRESSLY PROVIDED FOR IN THIS AGREEMENT.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold RBI, its officers, directors, employees and agents, content contributors, licensors, contractors and suppliers harmless from and against any claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from, your use of RBI’s online community Website in a manner that violates or is alleged to violate these Terms and Conditions. RBI shall provide you with prompt notice of any such claim, suit or proceeding and shall reasonably cooperate with you, at your expense, in your defense of any such claim, suit or proceeding.

Links/Advertisements

RBI’s Resource Advantage Platform Website may link to other sites operated by third parties. The inclusion of any link to such sites does not imply endorsement by RBI of the sites, but is for your reference and convenience only. RBI has not reviewed all of the sites linked to the Website and is not responsible for the content or accuracy of any off-site pages or any other sites linked to RBI. Nor does RBI recommend or endorse any specific tests, products or procedures that may be mentioned on or represented in advertisements on the Website. Visiting off-site pages or other sites is at your own risk and subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use of any hyper-linked site.
RBI’s Resource Advantage Platform Website also contains advertisements by third parties. Unless otherwise specifically stated on the Website, RBI does not endorse or make any representation regarding the liability, quality, or accuracy of any products or services featured in, or linked to any advertisement that appears on the Website.
Unless otherwise prohibited under these Terms and Conditions, you are hereby licensed to create data reports to the content on RBI’s Resource Advantage Platform Website with purchased subscription. RBI reserves the right to revoke your subscription generally, or your right to use specific data based on any purchased access. Under no circumstances may you "frame" the Resource Advantage Platform or any of its content or copy portions of RBI Resource Advantage Platform Website to a server, except as part of an Internet service provider's incidental caching of pages. Each page within the Resource Advantage Platform Website must be displayed in full (including all trademarks, branding, advertising and promotional materials), without any accompanying frame, border, margin, design, branding, trademark, advertising or promotional materials not originally displayed on the page within RBI.

Termination

You agree that RBI may terminate your use of the Resource Advantage Platform Website, if RBI reasonably believes that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of these Terms and Conditions of Use, or violated the rights of RBI or any third party, or for any reason with or without notice to you. You agree that RBI may modify or discontinue RBI’s Resource Advantage Platform Website, with or without notice to you. You agree that RBI will not be liable to you or any third party as a result of such modification or discontinuation.

Dispute resolution and arbitration

  1. You and RBI agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy between you and RBI arising in connection with or relating in any way to these Terms and Conditions or to your relationship with RBI as a user of the Platform (whether based in contract, tort, statute, fraud, misrepresentation, or any other legal theory, and whether the claims arise during or after the termination of this Agreement) will be determined by mandatory binding individual (not class) arbitration. You and RBI further agree that the arbitrator shall have the exclusive power to rule on his or her own jurisdiction, including any objections with respect to the existence, scope or validity of the Arbitration Agreement or to the arbitrability of any claim or counterclaim. arbitration provision will survive termination of the Agreements.
  2. Notwithstanding the paragraph (a) above, you and RBI both agree that nothing in this Arbitration Agreement will be deemed to waive, preclude, or otherwise limit either of our rights, at any time, to (1) bring an individual action in a U.S. small claims court or (2) bring an individual action seeking only temporary or preliminary individualized injunctive relief in a court of law, pending a final ruling from the arbitrator. In addition, this Arbitration Agreement doesn’t stop you or us from bringing issues to the attention of federal, state, or local agencies. Such agencies can, if the law allows, seek relief against us on your behalf (or vice versa).
  3. YOU AND RBI AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. Unless both you and RBI agree, no arbitrator or judge may consolidate more than one person’s claims or otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding. The arbitrator may award injunctive relief only in favor of the individual party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary to provide relief warranted by that party’s individual claim. The arbitrator may award only such damages as are allowed by these Terms and Conditions. If a court decides that applicable law precludes enforcement of any of this paragraph’s limitations as to a particular claim for relief, then that claim (and only that claim) must be severed from the arbitration and may be brought in court.
  4. Either you or RBI may start arbitration proceedings. Any arbitration between you and RBI will take place under the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) then in force (the “AAA Rules”), as modified by this Arbitration Agreement. You and RBI agree that the Federal Arbitration Act applies and governs the interpretation and enforcement of this provision (despite the choice of law provision above). Arbitration will be in Houston, Texas.
  5. If this Arbitration Agreement is invalidated in whole or in part, the parties agree that exclusive jurisdiction and venue will be in Houston, Texas and Texas law, without regard to its conflicts of laws provisions will govern any claim in court arising out of or related to the Agreements.

Survival

The provisions entitled "Your Submissions," "Disclaimer of Warranties," "Limitation of Liability," "Indemnification" and "General Provisions" will survive termination of this agreement.

Notice

RBI may deliver notice to you under these Terms and Conditions by means of electronic mail, a general notice on RBI’s Resource Advantage Platform Website, or by written communication delivered by first class U.S. mail to your address on record in RBI’s account information. You may give notice to RBI’s service center of excellence via electronic mail to research@ifma.org or by letter delivered by first class postage prepaid U.S. mail or overnight courier to the following address:
Street Address: 800 Gessner, Ste. 900, Houston, Texas, 77024-4257, USA
Phone: +1 (713) 993-7633