Terms

In these Terms:

1. (a)"we", "us", "our" and "the Practice" mean Next Wave LLC, a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of Rhode Island and trading as First Stop Robotics, with a mailing address at 68 Harrison Ave, Ste 605 PMB 372205, Boston, Massachusetts 02111, and include its members, managers, employees and contractors when they act for it;
2. (b)"you" and "your" mean the business or organization named in the booking form. The person who completes the form does so on its behalf, and is bound personally only where clause 2.5 says so;
3. (c)"the Call" means the free introductory conversation of about thirty minutes that you book through our website, together with the booking form, the scheduling and confirmation messages, and any follow-up email we send about that conversation;
4. (d)"the Booking" means your request for a Call made through our website, including everything you enter in the booking form;
5. (e)"the Terms" means this Consultation Terms document in the version identified by the version label shown at the top of this section;
6. (f)"Your Information" means everything you tell us, send us or show us in connection with the Call, in any form;
7. (g)"Deliverables" means documents, drawings, specifications, calculations, layouts, reports or other work product prepared for you. A follow-up email that repeats or summarizes what was said on the Call, or sends links to published material, is part of the Call and is not a Deliverable. Anything else prepared for you in writing is a Deliverable, and we do not provide Deliverables without an Engagement Agreement;
8. (h)"Credential" means any license, registration, certification, accreditation, authorization, attestation, listing, approval or recognition that states or implies the competence, qualification, quality, safety, security or conformity of the Practice or of a person at the Practice, whether issued by a public authority, a regulatory body, a licensing board, a standards body, an accreditation body, a certification body, a testing laboratory, a professional or trade association or another private organization. It does not include the filings that create and maintain Next Wave LLC as a limited liability company, its trade name filings, its tax registrations, its registrations to do business in a state, any trademark or other intellectual property registration, any business identifier or account with a supplier of services to us, any directory listing, award or membership described in clause 5.16, or a certificate that a person completed a course, which says only that they attended it;
9. (i)"Loss" means any loss, damage, cost, expense, claim, demand, fine, penalty or liability of any kind, including reasonable legal fees;
10. (j)"Engagement Agreement" means a separate written agreement, signed by both of us, under which we provide services beyond the Call.

"Including", "for example" and "such as" introduce examples and do not limit the words before them.

The Call is offered to businesses and other organizations that are deciding whether and what to buy in robotics, automation or artificial intelligence, and that will engage their own engineers, integrators and suppliers to design and build whatever they decide on. It is not offered to individuals acting for personal, family or household purposes.

We are not the right people for you, and we do not offer the Call, if you want:

1. (a)engineering work of any kind, including design, specification, calculation, integration, installation, programming, commissioning, testing, inspection or certification;
2. (b)work for a public-sector body, or for any program of the armed forces, national security, aviation or spaceflight, or any work subject to the United States export control regimes;
3. (c)work for a school, college, university or research institution, which we are not taking on at this stage; or
4. (d)a review of your existing equipment, process or site for safety or compliance.

We say this so that neither of us spends time on a Call that cannot help you. If your situation is one of those, please do not book.

By making a Booking you confirm that:

1. (a)you are at least eighteen years old;
2. (b)you are making the Booking for a business or other organization within clause 2.1, and its name is the one you give in the form;
3. (c)you have authority to accept these Terms on its behalf; and
4. (d)that organization is bound by these Terms as if it had accepted them itself.

If you do not have that authority, you accept these Terms personally. Booking a free introductory call is within the ordinary authority of a person who does so in their employer's name, and if your organization attends the Call, or lets you attend it on its behalf, it ratifies the Booking and is bound by these Terms from the moment of the Booking.

We may decline a Booking or end a Call at any time where:

1. (a)the subject is outside clause 2.1 or within clause 2.2;
2. (b)the subject needs a licensed professional;
3. (c)Your Information includes something listed in clause 7.4; or
4. (d)continuing would be inconsistent with these Terms or with the law.

We will say so plainly. We do not decline or end a Call on the basis of any characteristic protected by applicable anti-discrimination law.

If you cannot use the online booking form because of a disability, write to us at the mailing address in clause 1.1 and we will arrange the Call by an accessible means.

These Terms are written for dealings between businesses. If, despite clause 2.1, the law treats you as a consumer for any purpose, nothing in these Terms takes away a right that the law gives you and does not allow you to give up.

The Call is a free business conversation of about thirty minutes in which we learn about your situation and tell you whether and how we might help.

What we provide is conceptual and general: how a project of the kind you describe usually takes shape, the options usually open to a buyer, the trade-offs between them, and the questions to put to whoever will design and build it. The aim is that your own engineering team or integrator starts with a clear brief rather than a blank page. Everything after that brief, meaning the design, the numbers, the safety work and the sign-off, is theirs.

The Call includes no site visit, inspection, measurement, test, review of drawings or data, and no Deliverables. It relies on what you tell us, and we do not check it. Anything we say is a starting point for your own inquiries, not a conclusion to act on.

The Call does not make you our client. It does not create a consulting engagement, a professional relationship, a fiduciary duty, an agency, a partnership or a duty of care beyond the obligations expressly stated in these Terms. We do not act for you, and we do not act for any supplier, integrator or manufacturer. An engagement begins only under an Engagement Agreement.

The only obligations either of us takes on in connection with the Call are those written in these Terms.

We do not practice, and do not offer to practice, engineering as that term is defined in Rhode Island General Laws section 5-8-2, in Massachusetts General Laws chapter 112, section 81D, or in the corresponding law of any other state. Each of those definitions includes consultation that requires engineering education, training and experience. The Call does not require, and is not offered as requiring, any such education, training or experience, and we do not represent that any of our personnel possess it.

No member, employee or contractor of the Practice holds a certificate of registration as a professional engineer issued by the Rhode Island Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, by the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, or by the engineering licensing board of any other state, territory or country.

Next Wave LLC has not applied for and does not hold a certificate of authorization from the Rhode Island Board of Registration for Professional Engineers under Rhode Island General Laws section 5-8-24, and has not designated any person as an engineer in responsible charge. It has not designated a registrant-in-charge under 250 CMR 5.05 and holds no firm registration or authorization of any kind from the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. It holds no equivalent firm authorization, registration, permit or certificate in any other state. Next Wave LLC accordingly does not offer engineering services anywhere.

We do not use the title engineer, professional engineer or any similar term for the Practice or its personnel, and you must not describe the Practice or its personnel by any such title.

Nothing we provide is, or may be presented as, an engineering design, specification, drawing, calculation or layout, a risk assessment, safety review or compliance check, or a certification, approval or sign-off, and nothing we provide is prepared, checked, stamped or sealed by a registered professional engineer. What we say on the Call is our general view, and clause 6 explains that you must not rely on it.

We can explain what a published payload, reach, speed, accuracy or cycle-time figure means, and how suppliers' quotes compare. We do not calculate, size or confirm whether any robot, tool, fixture, guard, control or layout is adequate or safe for your parts, your process or your building. Those questions belong to your integrator, your supplier and any licensed professional you engage.

If you go ahead with a project, the people who design, build, install, program and commission it are responsible for it. We are not part of that chain. We do not check, verify or approve their work, and you must not tell them or anyone else that we did.

We hold no Credential. Without limiting that sentence, and because buyers in this field commonly ask, we confirm each of the following.

Occupational safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has not licensed, certified, accredited, authorized, approved, recognized or endorsed the Practice, any person at the Practice, or any course, product, procedure or advice of ours under any program it runs, and we understand it offers no credential to consultants. No person at the Practice is an authorized trainer under its Outreach Training Program, and we issue no course completion card. We are not part of the On-Site Consultation Program under 29 CFR Part 1908. Any statement that the Practice, its personnel or its advice is OSHA certified, approved, authorized or compliant is untrue.

Safety credentials. No person at the Practice holds the Certified Safety Professional, Associate Safety Professional or any other Credential issued by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals; the Certified Industrial Hygienist credential issued by the Board for Global EHS Credentialing; the Certified Professional Ergonomist credential issued by the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics; or the Certified Electrical Safety Compliance Professional credential issued by the National Fire Protection Association. We do not act as a safety professional, industrial hygienist, ergonomist or electrical safety professional, and we do not perform, review or sign risk assessments, hazard assessments, job safety analyses, energy control procedures, arc flash studies or personal protective equipment assessments.

Machinery, robot and functional safety. No person at the Practice holds any functional safety, machinery safety or robot safety practitioner certificate, by whatever name, issued by any private testing, inspection or certification company, training provider or personnel certification body against IEC 61508, IEC 61511, IEC 62061, ISO 13849, ISO 12100, ISO 10218, ANSI/A3 R15.06, the ANSI B11 series or any related standard. We do not determine performance levels, safety integrity levels, categories, stop times or separation distances; we do not specify, validate or verify any safety function or safeguard; and we do not confirm that any equipment may operate in a collaborative mode or share a workspace with people.

Testing laboratories and product marks. We are not a nationally recognized testing laboratory recognized by OSHA under 29 CFR 1910.7, are not a panel shop, field evaluation body or other participant in any such laboratory's program, and do not test, list, label, field evaluate or certify any product, panel, machine, cell or installation. We make no statement about what any listing or certification mark on a product means for your installation, your application, your risk assessment or your workplace; ask the issuing laboratory and your integrator.

Robot integrator and automation credentials. Next Wave LLC is not a Certified Robot Integrator under the program administered by the Association for Advancing Automation, has never applied for or been audited under that program, and is not a robot integrator, system integrator, machine builder or distributor of any kind. No person at the Practice holds the Certified Vision Professional or Certified Motion Control Professional credential issued by that association; the Certified Automation Professional or Certified Control Systems Technician credential issued by the International Society of Automation; or the Certified Manufacturing Engineer or Certified Manufacturing Technologist credential issued by SME, the professional society formerly named the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. We hold no certification under the ISA/IEC 62443 series. We do not design, program, configure, network, secure or commission control systems, robots or industrial networks.

Management systems. Next Wave LLC holds no certificate to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27701, ISO/IEC 42001, ISO 45001 or any other management system standard. Certificates to those standards are issued by third-party certification bodies, not by the International Organization for Standardization, and we have never engaged such a body or been audited by one. We do not audit, assess or certify you against those standards.

Security and privacy attestations. Next Wave LLC has not undergone a System and Organization Controls examination and holds no SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3 or SOC for Cybersecurity report; those are attestation reports issued by a licensed certified public accounting firm, not certificates, and no certificate exists to hold. We have not been assessed under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, hold no Report on Compliance or Attestation of Compliance, and are not a Qualified Security Assessor or Approved Scanning Vendor; we do not store, process or transmit payment card data. We have not been assessed at any level under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program at 32 CFR Part 170, have not self-assessed against NIST Special Publication 800-171, and hold no authorization under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program; we do not handle controlled unclassified information and you must not send us any.

Health information. Next Wave LLC is not a covered entity and is not a business associate within the meaning of 45 CFR 160.103, has entered into no business associate agreement, and has no arrangement with any covered entity or business associate for receiving protected health information; we will not accept it in any form. No public authority issues a HIPAA certification, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services has said that it does not recognize private certifications. We make no HIPAA compliance claim of any kind.

Frameworks and artificial intelligence. The NIST Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework are voluntary frameworks published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology; they are not certification schemes, NIST certifies no one against them, and we claim no conformity or alignment with either. No person at the Practice holds any artificial intelligence governance, audit, ethics, safety or risk Credential, including the Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional credential issued by the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the Advanced in AI Audit credential issued by ISACA, or the IEEE CertifAIEd credential issued by the IEEE Standards Association, and we know of no public authority in the United States that treats any such Credential as a qualification to audit an automated decision system. We do not perform bias audits under New York City Local Law 144 of 2021, are not a notified body or conformity assessment body under the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act or any European Union product law, and do not perform algorithmic impact assessments, conformity assessments or model evaluations.

Conformity assessment. Next Wave LLC is not an inspection body, a testing or calibration laboratory, or a management system, personnel or product certification body; is not accredited under ISO/IEC 17020, ISO/IEC 17021-1, ISO/IEC 17024, ISO/IEC 17025 or ISO/IEC 17065 by the ANSI National Accreditation Board or any other accreditation body; and is not a notified body designated by any member state of the European Union. We cannot issue any certificate of conformity, declaration of conformity, CE marking, listing, label or approval. Standards bodies publish standards; they do not certify the Practice, and our reference to any standard is not a claim of conformity with it.

Export controls. Next Wave LLC is not registered with the office of the United States Department of State that administers the arms export rules under 22 CFR Part 122, and is not registered as a broker under 22 CFR Part 129. It holds no license, license exception, agreement or approval under those rules or under the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR Parts 730 to 774, administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security of the United States Department of Commerce. We maintain no technology control plan. We do not classify items, software or technology, do not screen persons or transactions against restricted party lists, and do not screen calls for controlled content. We make no representation about the nationality or location of our personnel or about the location of the systems we use. Under those regimes a release can occur through an oral or written exchange or through visual inspection. You alone are responsible for deciding whether any disclosure to us is permitted, and we decline to advise on projects that involve items or technical data controlled under the arms export rules.

Trade and contractor licenses. Next Wave LLC and its personnel hold no license, registration or certificate from:

1. (a)the Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Electricians under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 141;
2. (b)the Massachusetts Bureau of Pipefitters, Refrigeration Technicians and Sprinkler Fitters under chapter 146;
3. (c)the Massachusetts Board of Building Regulations and Standards, including any construction supervisor license under 780 CMR;
4. (d)the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation as a home improvement contractor under chapter 142A;
5. (e)the Rhode Island State Board of Examiners of Electricians under Rhode Island General Laws chapter 5-6;
6. (f)the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training under chapter 28-27;
7. (g)the Rhode Island Contractors' Registration and Licensing Board under chapter 5-65; or
8. (h)any equivalent body in any other jurisdiction.

We do not install, wire, connect, pipe, move, rig, anchor, guard, modify, service or decommission any equipment. We do not apply for permits or inspections, and we do not act as a contractor, subcontractor or construction supervisor.

Legal, tax, accounting, insurance and financial advice. No person at the Practice is admitted to the bar of any jurisdiction, and Next Wave LLC is not a law firm. Under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 221, sections 46 and 46A, and Rhode Island General Laws sections 11-27-2 and 11-27-12, only a member of the bar may practice law or hold out as qualified to do so, and we do not. No person at the Practice is an attorney, certified public accountant, enrolled agent or other practitioner authorized to practice before the Internal Revenue Service under Treasury Department Circular 230, and none holds a preparer tax identification number. No person at the Practice holds a certificate, license or permit as a certified public accountant or public accountant from the Massachusetts Board of Public Accountancy or the Rhode Island Board of Accountancy. Neither Next Wave LLC nor its personnel holds an insurance producer, adviser or adjuster license from the Massachusetts Division of Insurance or the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation. Next Wave LLC is not registered as an investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Massachusetts Securities Division or the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation, and is not a licensed loan broker. We give no legal, tax, accounting, insurance, investment or financing advice, and we express no opinion on your legal duties. We do not audit, review, compile or attest to any financial information. Any cost, payback, savings, return or budget figure discussed on the Call is an unaudited illustration for your own analysis with your own advisers. We are paid nothing for the Call by anyone. We receive no fee, commission or other payment from any lender, lessor, supplier or integrator for referring you to them or for anything you buy from them, and we will tell you on the Call if any business that comes up on it has ever paid us for anything.

Insurance. These Terms say nothing about whether Next Wave LLC carries professional liability, general liability, cyber or any other insurance, or about the limits, terms or exclusions of any policy, and you should not assume that any Loss arising from the Call is insured. If you need evidence of insurance as a condition of a future engagement, ask for a certificate of insurance before that engagement is signed. The insurance position will be stated in the Engagement Agreement and not otherwise.

Associations. Membership of, participation in, or reference to any trade association, standards committee, chamber of commerce, professional society, directory or industry group is not a Credential, an endorsement or an approval, and we do not display any such body's name, seal or logo as if it were. A statement that we are a member of an organization means that we belong to it, and nothing more. Consistent with the Federal Trade Commission's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, 16 CFR Part 255, we make no claim that any independent third party has endorsed, certified, vetted or approved us or our services.

Other credentials. Next Wave LLC does not hold, and no person at the Practice holds, any of the following:

1. (a)certification as a small, minority, women, veteran or disadvantaged business enterprise from any public body or program;
2. (b)registration in the System for Award Management;
3. (c)any partner, reseller, integrator or distributor status granted by any manufacturer of robots, machines, software or components; a certificate that a person completed a manufacturer's course is not such a status, and we do not present one as a qualification;
4. (d)the Certified Management Consultant credential issued by the Institute of Management Consultants USA;
5. (e)any project management, lean or six sigma Credential;
6. (f)any information security or privacy practitioner Credential issued by a professional membership body; or
7. (g)any affiliation with a Manufacturing Extension Partnership center.

The list in this clause is illustrative and not exhaustive. The omission of any Credential from it is not a representation that we hold it. You confirm that you have not relied on any license, registration, certification, accreditation, attestation, insurance, membership or affiliation of the Practice in booking or attending the Call. If we obtain a Credential, we will publish a new version of these Terms before offering any further Call.

The Call is not confidential. Neither booking it, completing the booking form nor anything said on the Call creates a nondisclosure agreement, a duty of confidence or a duty to maintain secrecy on our part, whether express or implied, and we disclaim any such duty. We will keep nothing confidential unless a separate confidentiality agreement has been signed by both of us before the disclosure is made. For this purpose an exchange of emails is not a signed agreement, whatever clause 23.3 says; a signed agreement means a document that both of us have signed by hand or through an electronic signing service. If you think the Call will need confidential detail, tell us before you book, and we will discuss whether such an agreement makes sense.

Before the Call, decide what to tell us. Keep it to what you would tell a stranger in your industry.

Please do not tell us anything you regard as a trade secret before a written confidentiality agreement is signed. Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. 1839), Massachusetts General Laws chapter 93, section 42, and Rhode Island General Laws section 6-41-1, information is a trade secret only while its owner takes measures that are reasonable under the circumstances to keep it secret. Disclosure to an outside adviser who owes no duty of confidence is inconsistent with such measures and can weaken or forfeit your protection.

In connection with the Call, you must not send us, show us or read to us, and we do not agree to receive:

1. (a)a trade secret or other confidential information, unless a written confidentiality agreement signed by both of us covers it;
2. (b)personal information about identifiable people, beyond the names, job titles, work contact details and roles of the people taking part in the Call and of the staff whose work the Call is about, and in particular any data element that would trigger data security or breach notification duties under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 93H and 201 CMR 17.00, Rhode Island General Laws chapter 11-49.3 or any similar law;
3. (c)health or medical information, including protected health information under 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164 and employee medical information protected under disability discrimination law;
4. (d)financial account, payment card, bank or login credential information, including information subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (15 U.S.C. 6801 to 6809) or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard;
5. (e)personal information about any person under eighteen years of age, beyond the fact that such people work for you, which is our rule whether or not a law requires it;
6. (f)biometric identifiers or biometric information, including information subject to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (740 ILCS 14), Texas Business and Commerce Code section 503.001 or Washington RCW 19.375;
7. (g)information you hold under a nondisclosure, employment, customer or supplier agreement that does not permit disclosure to us; or
8. (h)technology, technical data, software or source code subject to the United States export control regimes or the arms export rules, or any item or information for which a license, license exception or other authorization would be required before release to any person.

Only share what you have the right to share. By making a Booking you confirm that anything you tell us or send us is yours to share, or that you have permission from whoever it belongs to. We will not knowingly accept information that belongs to someone else, and we may end a Call if it becomes clear that we are being given information we should not have.

If you send us something clause 7.4 covers, we may delete it unread. We owe you no duty to protect, segregate or return it. We handle what we receive with ordinary business care, using ordinary commercial email, video conferencing and file storage, and that is not a promise of confidentiality or of any particular level of security.

You decide what to share, and you are responsible for that decision. We will not knowingly ask you for anything clause 7.4 covers. Even so, if sharing something with us breaks a law, a regulation, a contract, a license condition or your organization's policy, that breach and its consequences rest with you, whether or not one of our questions prompted it. Clause 11 applies to any Loss that results.

We are not a law firm or an accounting firm. Nothing you tell us is protected by attorney-client privilege, work product protection or any other evidentiary privilege, and we have not been retained by your counsel to assist in giving legal advice. If a court, a regulatory body or other legal process requires us to produce our notes, your emails or any other record of the Call, we will comply. Where the law allows and there is time, we will tell you first, but we cannot promise to.

Massachusetts law treats secret recording of a conversation as a crime, and the laws of other states may require the consent of everyone on a call. Neither of us will record the Call by any means, including a call-recording feature, a transcription service or an artificial intelligence note-taking or meeting assistant tool, unless the party recording tells the other at the start of the Call and every participant agrees. Any person who joins the Call on your side is your responsibility for this purpose.

We do not record or transcribe calls, and we do not let a note-taking or meeting assistant tool join them. If that ever changes for your Call, we will say so in the confirmation email before the Call and again at its start, and you may decline. If you decline, we will not record.

If you record the Call without telling us, you are in breach of these Terms and may be breaking the law, and clause 11 applies to any Loss that results.

We keep brief written notes of the Call for our own records, outside the website and separate from the booking system. Those notes belong to us, are not confidential, are not Deliverables, may be retained, and may be produced if the law requires. A recording or transcript made with consent under clause 8.1 is a note for these purposes.

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless us and our members, managers, employees and contractors against any Loss arising out of a claim, demand or proceeding brought by anyone other than you, to the extent it arises out of or is connected with:

1. (a)Your Information, including any claim that you had no right to share it, that sharing it broke a law, regulation, contract, license condition or policy, or that it was confidential, personal, controlled or belonged to someone else;
2. (b)your equipment, software, tools, workplace, premises or operations, including any injury to any person or damage to any property that occurs there;
3. (c)any decision you make to buy, lease, build, install, program, modify, move, operate, guard, maintain or decommission any equipment or system, whether or not the Call touched on it;
4. (d)any claim by your employees, contractors, customers, suppliers, integrators, visitors or insurers connected with any of the above; or
5. (e)your breach of these Terms.

This clause applies only to claims brought by others. It does not apply to a claim you bring against us, and it does not make you pay our costs of defending such a claim.

Clause 11.1 does not require you to indemnify us for any part of a Loss to the extent a court finds it was caused by our own negligence, fraud, gross negligence or willful misconduct.

If anyone brings a claim against us that this clause covers, we will tell you promptly. You may take over the handling of that claim with counsel we reasonably approve, provided you keep us informed and do not settle it in a way that admits fault on our behalf or imposes an obligation on us without our written consent.

This clause continues to apply after the Call ends.

You are the employer of your workers and the controller of your workplace, and you alone remain responsible for the safety of your staff, contractors and visitors, for complying with every occupational safety law that applies to your workplace, and for applying every standard that applies to your equipment and its use. Which laws and standards those are depends on where you operate and what you do. We do not tell you which ones apply, and nothing in these Terms is a list of them or a summary of what they require. Talking to us does not transfer, share or reduce any of that responsibility.

No robot or machine is safe by itself. A robot marketed as collaborative, safe, certified or compliant still needs a risk assessment, safeguards, verification and validation for the exact task, tool, workpiece, speed and workspace you will use it in, and the result may be that people cannot share the space with it at all. You must not rely on a product label, a sales claim or anything we say to decide that a machine can work alongside your staff.

Before you buy, install, change, move, re-tool, reprogram, re-task or run any robot or automated machine, and before anyone works in or near it, you must engage a qualified integrator and, where appropriate, a qualified safety professional or licensed professional engineer, and have them identify and carry out the risk assessment, safeguarding, verification, validation, energy control, protective equipment, training and documentation that the law and the applicable standards require for the actual application. Their list, not anything in these Terms, is the list. If you later change the equipment, the application or what people do around it, that work must be done again. We can help you understand what questions to ask. We cannot do any of it for you.

We do not give operating instructions, work procedures, training or guidance on how to run, service, teach, program, guard, isolate or lock out any machine. If we describe how something is commonly done, that is general background only. We do not supervise, direct or control any work at your site, and we do not act as your safety officer, competent person, qualified person, authorized employee or representative under any law, rule or standard.

What we say on the Call is our view, not a finding and not a professional opinion. It is based on what you tell us and on information published by manufacturers and suppliers. We do not test equipment, measure your site or verify vendor claims. Claims that a product is accurate, safe, unbiased or compliant are the vendor's claims, not ours.

Before you buy, install or change anything, you must:

1. (a)check the facts yourself;
2. (b)get more than one quote;
3. (c)get specifications, safety documentation, references and warranty terms from the supplier in writing; and
4. (d)have your own qualified people confirm that the equipment, and the way you plan to use it, is suitable for your work and safe for your staff.

Suppliers, integrators and professionals we mention are independent businesses. We may have partner, referral or reseller arrangements with some of them and may be paid when a client buys from one; if a supplier we name on a Call is one of them, we will say so. Those arrangements do not decide what we tell you, and you are never obliged to use a partner. We do not warrant their products, their work or their claims, and we do not act as your agent. Any name that comes up on a Call is a starting point for your own research, not a recommendation. Contract with them directly and check their licenses, insurance and references yourself.

When we mention a standard, that is a pointer to something you should look into, not a summary of what it requires and not a statement that anything conforms to it. A consensus standard is voluntary unless a public authority incorporates it into a rule, but a regulatory body may treat a current standard as evidence of a recognized hazard and of a feasible way to abate it. Standards are revised, and the current editions are paid publications of the standards bodies. You are responsible for identifying the editions that apply to you, obtaining them and having qualified people apply them.

If you use an artificial intelligence or automated decision tool in your business, you are the deployer of that tool, and the legal duties that come with deployment are yours. Depending on where you operate and what the tool does, those can include giving notice to employees, applicants or customers that a tool is in use, obtaining a bias audit, carrying out a risk or impact assessment, keeping records, explaining adverse decisions, and offering human review or an appeal. Those duties change often. We do not track them for you, and we do not certify any tool, system or process as compliant.

We will hold the Call at the booked time. If we cannot, we will tell you by email as early as we can and offer another time. You may cancel or move the Call the same way. Neither of us owes the other anything for a canceled, missed or moved Call beyond that.

Anything we share on or after the Call remains ours and is provided for your internal use in considering a purchase, subject to clause 4.5. Anything you share remains yours. You give us permission to use it for the Call, for our notes, and to draw on what we learn from calls in our published material and future work without naming or identifying you or your organization. Clause 7 explains that this is not a promise of confidentiality.

Every exclusion, limitation and indemnity in these Terms applies only to the fullest extent the law allows.

If a court finds any part of these Terms invalid or unenforceable, that part is to be read as narrowly as needed to make it valid and enforceable, and the rest of these Terms stays in force. If that part cannot be read narrowly, it is treated as removed, and the rest of these Terms stays in force.

Each of us intends clauses 6, 9, 10 and 11 to be applied as far as the law permits, and not to be set aside as a whole because one application of them fails.

These Terms are the entire agreement between you and us about the Call. They replace every earlier statement, promise, proposal or understanding about the Call, whether written or spoken.

Our privacy page explains how we handle personal information. It is a notice, not a term of this agreement. If it conflicts with these Terms about the Call, these Terms prevail.

Nothing on our website, in our marketing or in any conversation forms part of these Terms unless it is written in them.

If we later sign an Engagement Agreement with you, that agreement governs the engagement. These Terms continue to govern the Call.

A change to these Terms binds us only if it is in a document signed for Next Wave LLC in the way clause 7.1 describes, or in a later version published under clause 20. An email from us is not such a document.

These Terms are for the benefit of you and us only. Our members, managers, employees and contractors may enforce clauses 6, 9, 10 and 11 as if they were parties to these Terms. No one else has any right under these Terms.

You may not transfer any right or obligation under these Terms to anyone else without our written consent. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms to a successor to our business, and we will publish notice of any such transfer on our website.

You accept these Terms by checking the box marked "I have read and agree to the Consultation Terms" and submitting the Booking. Confirming the Booking through the link we email you completes the same Booking under the same version of these Terms; it is not a new agreement and no other terms apply to it. That act is your electronic signature and has the same effect as a handwritten signature.

You agree that we may form this agreement electronically, and that we may send notices, confirmations and other communications about the Call by email to the address you give us.

Our record of your acceptance is the confirmation email sent to you and the copy sent to us. Each states the version label of these Terms you accepted and the date and time of acceptance, and the copy sent to us also states the email address used. We keep that record for as long as a claim about the Call could be brought, and a request to delete your personal information does not remove it. That record is evidence of your acceptance unless you show that it is wrong.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the details you enter and for keeping your confirmation email.

Notices to us must be sent by mail to Next Wave LLC at the mailing address in clause 1.1, or by email to any address we publish on our website for that purpose. Notices to you will be sent to the email address you gave when booking. A notice is effective when sent unless the sender receives an automated delivery failure message.

A printed or electronically stored copy of the version of these Terms you accepted is admissible as evidence of its content.

Each version of these Terms carries a version label shown at the top of this section. The label states the date on which the version took effect and, where more than one version took effect on the same date, a revision number.

The version displayed on our website at the moment you submit a Booking governs that Booking and the Call it books. A later version does not change it.

We may publish a new version at any time. It applies only to Bookings made after it is published. No version applies to you by reason of your continued use of the website.

We keep a copy of every version we have published, and we will supply the version that governs your Booking on request.

If a dispute arises, each of us will write to the other describing it, and we will meet or speak within thirty days to try to resolve it before either of us starts court proceedings.

This clause does not prevent either of us from asking a court for urgent relief.

Any claim you bring against us arising out of or connected with the Call must be started within one year after the Call, except where the law does not allow that period to be shortened.

These Terms, the Booking, the Call and any dispute or claim arising out of or connected with any of them, whether in contract, in tort (including negligence), under statute or otherwise, are governed by the laws of the State of Rhode Island, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. That choice covers clause 21.3 and every question about when a claim must be brought.

The state and federal courts sitting in Providence County, Rhode Island have exclusive jurisdiction over any such dispute or claim. Each of us submits to that jurisdiction and gives up any objection to it, including any objection that the court is an inconvenient forum. If the law gives you a right to bring a claim elsewhere that you cannot give up, this clause does not take it away.

Nothing in this clause stops either of us from asking any court that has jurisdiction for an order to stop or prevent a breach of clause 8 or clause 15, or from enforcing a judgment of a Rhode Island court in any other place.

Headings are for convenience only and do not affect meaning.

Words in the singular include the plural, and the reverse.

"Written" and "in writing" include email.

A reference to a law, rule or standard includes it as amended or replaced from time to time.

You may take legal advice on these Terms before you book. No rule that reads a clause against the party that drafted it applies.

A failure or delay by either of us in exercising a right under these Terms is not a waiver of it.

Clauses 1 to 13 and 15 to 24 continue to apply after the Call ends, and after any Booking is declined, canceled or lapses.