These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of TK Geomap (the “Service”), a platform established in 2015 that transforms raw satellite and terrain data into readable location-based stories. By using the Service, you agree to the following numbered terms, which are designed to provide clarity and predictability for GIS analysts and urban planners operating in the United States.
- Governing Law. These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to the Service, its data processing, or your use thereof, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the substantive laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Federal law shall apply where preemptive. You acknowledge that your geographic data inputs and derived outputs do not alter the applicable jurisdiction.
- Exclusive Venue. Except where prohibited by applicable law, any legal action or proceeding arising from or related to these Terms, the Service, or any data visualization you generate shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in New Castle County, Delaware. You consent to personal jurisdiction and venue in such courts and waive any objection based on inconvenient forum.
- Dispute Resolution – Mandatory Negotiation. Before initiating any formal proceeding, you agree to notify us via the Contact Us page of the specific dispute, including the underlying data layers, timestamps, and expected outcome. We will respond within thirty (30) calendar days. Both parties shall engage in good-faith negotiation for at least sixty (60) days, unless the dispute concerns intellectual property infringement, unauthorized access, or breach of confidentiality.
- Binding Arbitration. If negotiation fails, any dispute, claim, or controversy shall be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, with the following analytical parameters: (a) the arbitration shall be conducted in English in Delaware; (b) the arbitrator shall have expertise in geographic information systems or spatial data law; (c) the arbitrator may order limited discovery consistent with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; and (d) the arbitrator’s decision shall include written findings of fact and legal reasoning. You may opt out of this arbitration clause by sending written notice via the Contact Us page within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms.
- Class Action Waiver. All disputes shall be resolved on an individual basis. You waive any right to participate in a class action, consolidated action, or representative action against TK Geomap. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one user’s claims, nor preside over any class or collective proceeding. If this specific waiver is found unenforceable, the entire arbitration clause shall be severed, and the exclusive venue provision in Section 2 shall apply.
- Injunctive Relief Exception. Notwithstanding Sections 4 and 5, either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect trade secrets, source code, raw satellite datasets, or to prevent imminent unauthorized distribution of location-based stories derived from the Service. Such relief does not waive the right to later compel arbitration.
- Modifications to Terms. We may modify these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in law, data processing standards, or the functional evolution of the Service. We will provide at least thirty (30) days’ advance notice via the Service interface and via email if you have registered an account. Modifications become effective on the date specified in the notice, unless you terminate your account before such date.
- Modifications – Materiality Standard. A modification is “material” if it alters the governing law, dispute resolution mechanism, or your data ownership rights. For material changes, we will require a separate affirmative acknowledgment (e.g., checkbox or click-through) upon your next login. Non-material changes (e.g., formatting, clarifications, or updates to referencing statutes) take effect without additional consent, but we will maintain a version history archive accessible from the Contact Us page.
- Continuity of Older Terms. Any dispute arising from your use of the Service prior to a modification shall be governed by the version of these Terms in effect at the time of the disputed data processing event. You may request a copy of any prior version via the Contact Us page, and we will provide it in machine-readable format (e.g., JSON or XML) within ten (10) business days.
- Severability and Survival. If any provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable by an arbitrator or court of competent jurisdiction, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect. Sections 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 shall survive termination of your account or discontinuation of the Service, to the extent necessary to resolve any accrued dispute.
From a data-driven perspective, these Terms are structured to minimize jurisdictional ambiguity and reduce the cost of conflict resolution. For urban planners who routinely merge municipal cadastral layers with federal elevation models, the choice of Delaware law and Delaware courts provides a predictable, precedent-rich environment—one that has consistently addressed software-as-a-service disputes with technical specificity. Similarly, the mandatory arbitration clause is calibrated to your professional context: it assumes both parties can evaluate spatial error margins, coordinate reference systems, and temporal validity of datasets, and it requires the arbitrator to do the same.
We recognize that your work often depends on long-term data pipelines and institutional contracts. Therefore, the modification provisions are deliberately conservative—thirty days’ notice for any change, and a separate opt-in for material alterations ensures that your analysis of historical satellite imagery is never retroactively governed by terms you did not knowingly accept. For full details on how to initiate a dispute, request a prior version, or exercise your opt-out right, please navigate to the Contact Us page. Your continued use of TK Geomap after the effective date of any modification constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms, based on the same analytical rigor you apply to every layer of geographic data you process.