BioRender - User Content Terms

User Content Terms

Plain English Commentary

1. Overview
Our Services provide you with a robust platform to use BioRender Content, combined with content you import, develop on your own or license from a third-party (“User Content”), to create final illustrations, images, figures, drawings and graphics (“Completed Graphics”). For purposes of these terms (“User Content Terms”), User Content shall include any data or other content or information provided by you or on your behalf to BioRender as well as your Completed Graphics. Please keep in mind that to the extent that you include BioRender Content in your Completed Graphics, we place limitations on the use of such Completed Graphics under our Terms of Service.

BioRender has the right to refuse to accept any User Content for any reason or no reason. BioRender has the right to remove any User Content from our Service at any time for any reason (including but not limited to our belief that your submission would or does subject us to legal action or if your User Content violates the terms of our Agreement with you). You have the right to remove any of your User Content from our Service at any time for any reason.

These User Content Terms form an integral part of our Terms of Service and are incorporated by reference therein. Capitalized terms that are not defined in these User Content Terms have the meaning given them in our Terms of Service.

Overview of our User Content Terms.
These User Content Terms explain how we can use the data and content you create in or import into BioRender (your “User Content”) along with our icons and templates (our “BioRender Content”) to make final figures (a “Completed Graphic”). You can use BioRender Content in your figures, but you must follow the rules in our Terms of Service and the license terms (Basic, Academic, or Industry) that apply to your BioRender plan.

2. Ownership, Permitted Content
Except as specifically set forth in this Agreement, nothing in this Agreement assigns or grants to BioRender any right, title or interest including any Intellectual Property Rights in or to User Content and you retain all ownership and Intellectual Property Rights in and to the User Content. However, please note that if you are a Permitted User of an Organizational Customer, any Intellectual Property Rights you have in User Content may be subject to the rights of such Organizational Customer. For avoidance of doubt, by using our Services, you waive any and all Intellectual Property in a Completed Graphic to the extent to which it interferes with our own Intellectual Property Rights in BioRender Content or any Modifications to BioRender Content which are granted to us under our Content License Terms. Since a Completed Graphic is comprised of both BioRender Content (including any Modifications) and your User Content, the license you provide to us in this User Content Terms is also intended to extend to the Completed Graphics that are prepared.  

You agree that you are solely responsible for all User Content that you make available on or through the Service. You represent and warrant that (i) you are either the sole and exclusive owner of all User Content or you have all rights, licensces, consents and releases that are necessary to grant to us the rights in such User Content as contemplated in this User Content Terms; (ii) if your User Content contains any Personal Information that you have provided all notices and disclosures, obtained all applicable third party consents and permissions and otherwise have all authority, in each case as required by Applicable Law, to enable BioRender to provide the Services (including any Software Services) to you, including with respect to the collection, storage, access, use, disclosure and transmission of such Personal Information, and (iii) neither the User Content nor the posting, uploading, publication, sending or receiving of the User Content or our use of the User Content on, through or by means of our Service will infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party’s Intellectual Property Rights, or rights of publicity or privacy, or result in the violation of any Applicable Law or regulation. Any and all User Content submitted to our Services must be your own original work or work that you obtain under license from the original author. You are responsible for obtaining the permission from any previous publisher or Copyright holder of your User Content if you are re-using any content published elsewhere, or that is copyrighted.

User Content Ownership.
We DO NOT own the figures you create in BioRender.
You own: 

  1. The figure you create in BioRender (Completed Graphic) which is the assembly of different BioRender Content and/or User Content; and
  2. your User Content (or you have a license to use it from wherever you got it).

BioRender owns:

  1. The BioRender icons and templates (BioRender Content) that make up our library. We continue to own this BioRender Content when it's in your figures, but that doesn't impact your ownership of the final figure or ability to use BioRender Content as we provide you with this Academic License to use our BioRender Content for your publishing or other use cases.

If you are an employee or working on behalf of a company or organization that is a BioRender customer, your User Content may actually belong to your employer.  

Your Responsibilities with User Content.  Since we can't control what you create in or upload to BioRender, you need to confirm that:

  1. you either own all your User Content or have the necessary rights and permissions to grant us the rights described in these terms;
  2. if your User Content includes Personal Information, you’ve followed all legal requirements for notices, consents, and permissions needed for us to provide our Services, including handling that Personal Information; and
  3. your User Content and its use on our platform won’t infringe on anyone else's intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or any laws or regulations that may be applicable.

3.   License Grant.
By submitting User Content to the Service, including any Completed Graphics containing such User Content, you grant to BioRender and its Affiliates a nonexclusive, fully paid-up right to translate, modify (for technical purposes including to ensure content is viewable on different platforms), reproduce, process, host, store, maintain and transmit User Content and Completed Graphics created with your User-Account to:

  • operate, improve, and enhance the Services and its other offerings, enforcement of our rights or for any purpose you agree in writing or through your User-Account,
  • produce data, information or other materials that are not identified as relating to a particular individual or company (such data, information and materials, the “Aggregated Data”) in which case BioRender may use, process, store, disclose and transmit the Aggregated Data for any purpose and without restriction or obligation to any Customer of BioRender (or such Customer’s Permitted Users). You agree that the licenses you grant are non-exclusive royalty-free, perpetual, sublicenseable, irrevocable, and worldwide, provided that when your User-Account is deleted, we will stop displaying your User Content and Completed Graphics to other users except (i) to the relevant Organizational Customer who established your User-Account if you are a Permitted User, and (ii) if you authorized and granted public access to such content for a Public Gallery (as defined below) it will remain available to other Users. You understand and agree that it may not be possible to completely delete any content from our computer servers, and that your User Content and Completed Graphics may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent that they were available to be copied or stored by other users of our Services as permitted herein.

Rights You Give Us.
In order to allow you to use your User Content in BioRender, we need permission from you to use it as described here. This includes using your User Content to improve our Services and analyzing aggregated data from your usage (which cannot be traced back to you). This helps us understand how users interact with BioRender and make improvements, like enhancing our icon search feature for better results.

4. Community Galleries
By submitting any User Content for public use in our community galleries (“Public Gallery”), you hereby grant BioRender, a worldwide, non-exclusive right and license to copy, reproduce, create derivative works, publicly display, market, sublicense and sell any such User Content and Completed Graphics uploaded by you and accepted by BioRender to its Public Galleries, subject to these User Content Terms and the requirement that you are provided appropriate credit for such User Content and/or Completed Graphics. If you elect to provide and publicly display your User Content in our Public Galleries, BioRender shall have the right, but not the obligation, to license all such User Content to its Users in accordance with BioRender’s Terms of Service. The specific terms that will govern specific User Content will be determined by the license under which a particular User downloads such User Content. By posting User Content and/or Completed Graphics to our Public Galleries, you acknowledge and agree that you are also granting Bio-Render and third-parties the right to use and reproduce any Intellectual Property including themes or ideas you create using our Services that may be embedded in your User Content and/or Completed Graphics and you will not be entitled to any consideration therefor.

Sharing Your Figures.
If you want to share your figures (with your User Content) in the BioRender community gallery, you can submit them to our Public Gallery. By doing so, you give us permission to:

  1. use the submitted figure and the User Content, including any themes or ideas, ourselves in various ways, including copying, displaying, creating new works from it, marketing it, sharing it and selling it, as long as you are properly credited;
  2. allow other BioRender users to use your submitted work, provided they follow the Terms of Service and their respective Basic/Academic/Industry License terms.

Submitting to the Public Gallery is optional and not required to use BioRender.

We hope the explanations above help clarify our terms. If you still have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at support@biorender.com.

Thank you for supporting our mission to help the scientific community share their ideas and discoveries for the advancement of science.