Terms of Use

Last updated: 2026-06-11

Welcome to Aegus!

These Terms of Use (these "Terms") constitute a legal agreement between you and [Aegus, LLC, a Florida limited liability company] ("Aegus", "we", "our", or "us") stating the terms and conditions that govern your access to and use of the Aegus website at https://aegus.io, the Aegus proprietary software and web platform at https://app.aegus.io, applicable application programming interfaces, content therein, and related technologies (all together, "Services").

BY ACCESSING OR USING THE SERVICES, REGISTERING AN ACCOUNT WITH US, OR CLICKING ON A BUTTON ON THE SERVICES INDICATING YOUR CONSENT, YOU HEREBY AGREE TO COMPLY WITH AND BE LEGALLY BOUND BY THESE TERMS. You also hereby acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy, which explains how we collect, use, and share your personal information. If you do not agree to these Terms, please discontinue use of the Services immediately.

If you are using the Services on behalf of an entity, then (a) "you" and "your" includes yourself and that entity, (b) you represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind the entity to these Terms, and that you agree to these Terms on the entity's behalf, and (c) the entity is legally and financially responsible for your use of the Services as well as for the access or use of your account by others affiliated with your entity, including any employees, agents or contractors.

Our Services

Aegus is a Research Operating System for academic researchers. The Services provide a unified workspace spanning the research lifecycle, including idea exploration, literature review, data management and transformation, statistical modeling, manuscript drafting, and publishing, together with Athena, our built-in AI research assistant grounded in a curated corpus of scholarly literature. Our vision is for AI to serve as a trustworthy research assistant that accelerates rigorous scholarship.

Account Registration

You must be the higher of 18 years of age or the minimum age required in your residential jurisdiction to consent to these Terms. If you create an account or use the Services on behalf of another person or entity, you represent and warrant that you have the legal authority to agree to these Terms on their behalf.

To use the Services, you need to create an account and provide accurate, up-to-date information. All the details you share are covered by our Privacy Policy. Keep your account credentials confidential. Any activity on your account is your responsibility. If you suspect someone else is using your account or notice any security issue, please notify us immediately.

We grant you a limited right of access to use the Services as described in these Terms. We reserve the right to disable your account at any time, including if you have failed to comply with any of these Terms, or if activities occur on your account which, in our sole discretion, would or might cause damage to or impair the Services or infringe or violate any third-party rights, or violate any applicable laws.

Artificial Intelligence

We incorporate AI Technology in the Services, such as Athena, automated literature search and retrieval, research artifact drafting (including research motivations, hypotheses, identification strategies, and model specifications), and computational workflows, to enable you to receive Output based on the Input and our Licensed Materials. You are responsible for ensuring the use of our AI Technology and all Input comply with all applicable laws and with these Terms.

"AI Technology" means any machine learning, deep learning, and other artificial intelligence technologies.

"Input" means any data, information, question, publications, or other content that is provided by a user to Aegus for processing, including by AI Technology.

"Output" means any data, information, research artifacts, drafts, citations, model specifications, or other content generated and produced by Aegus, including by AI Technology.

"Licensed Materials" means any materials Aegus is entitled to use, including scholarly publication metadata and abstracts obtained from public scholarly indexes, content covered by negotiated proprietary licenses ("Proprietary Content"), content licensed under Creative Commons (BY, BY-ND, BY-SA) or similar licenses, and content in the public domain.

Output may resemble existing works and other users may receive similar Output in response to similar Inputs, including the Licensed Materials. Output is provided "as is" and is not guaranteed to be accurate, complete, or up to date. Although Athena is designed to ground its claims and citations in our literature corpus, it is your responsibility to review and verify any Output, including all citations, references, and statistical results, for accuracy and suitability for your use case. Please ensure any Output intended for use in publications or disseminated materials is not substantially similar with existing works and complies with the standards of academic integrity applicable to your field and institution.

These Terms expressly prohibit any third party to use any Services, Aegus's intellectual property, or Licensed Materials, to develop, train, validate, update, fine-tune, improve, or modify any of your own or a third party's AI Technology. Any violation shall be considered a material breach of these Terms, subject to all remedies provided under law.

Ownership and License of Input and Output

Input

You are responsible for your Input. You represent and warrant that you have all rights, licenses, and permissions needed to provide Input to our Services. As between you and Aegus, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, you retain all intellectual property and other rights in your Input, including your research ideas, hypotheses, datasets, manuscripts, and other research content.

We may use your Input to provide, maintain, develop, and improve our Services, comply with applicable law, enforce these Terms, and prevent abuse. For users on paid Enterprise plans, we will not use your Input to develop or improve the Services, unless you explicitly agree to such use.

Output

Subject to the Licensed Materials section below, and to the extent permitted by applicable law:

As between you and Aegus, you own the Output (except for the Licensed Materials). We hereby assign to you all our right, title, and interest, if any, in and to the Output (except for the Licensed Materials). You hereby grant Aegus and its affiliates a non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable, non-revocable, worldwide, and royalty-free license to use the Output. For Enterprise users, Aegus's use of that Output is limited to the operation and improvement of the system.

Collectively, Inputs and Outputs are "Content."

Collaboration

If you invite collaborators to a project, you grant those collaborators access to the project's Content for the purpose of the collaboration. You are responsible for ensuring you have the right to share any Content you make available to collaborators. The project owner retains control of the project, including the ability to remove collaborators.

Licensed Materials

Scholarly Metadata and Abstracts

The Services include a corpus of scholarly publication metadata and abstracts (such as titles, authors, journals, publication dates, identifiers, and abstracts) obtained from public scholarly indexes and other lawful sources. This material is provided to support literature discovery, citation, and grounding of AI Output. Citations and bibliographic references generated by the Services point to the original publications; accessing the full text of any publication remains subject to the rights holder's terms, your institutional subscriptions, or open-access licensing, as applicable.

Proprietary Content

Where Proprietary Content is licensed to Aegus under negotiated license agreements from third parties, those third parties or their licensors own the Proprietary Content and have granted Aegus permission to use it under specific license agreements.

If Proprietary Content appears in the Services or in any Output, Aegus grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, and revocable license to access and use that content in accordance with the applicable underlying license terms. You may only use Proprietary Content under your own Aegus account, and any further sublicense is expressly prohibited. Where excerpts of Proprietary Content appear in Output, Aegus will provide attribution (including title, author, and source) with a link to the publisher's page or DOI where available.

If you wish to use any Proprietary Content beyond what is expressly permitted by Aegus, you must obtain a separate license directly from the rights holder. Aegus disclaims all liability for unauthorized use of third-party Proprietary Content.

Creative Commons (BY, BY-ND, BY-SA)

Aegus may include text, images, datasets, or other content under Creative Commons licenses (CC BY, CC BY-ND, or CC BY-SA), or similar licenses. We will indicate which materials are CC-licensed where practicable. If you reuse or redistribute any CC-licensed materials from Aegus, you must comply with the specific underlying CC-license terms. In any public distribution, you should give proper attribution as required by the applicable CC license.

Public Domain

Aegus may include public domain content in the Services and Output. You do not need to credit an author or source when reusing public domain materials, though we encourage noting original authors when known for good scholarly practice. Because AI Technology may combine or transform public domain content, we do not guarantee that any such Output is accurate, complete, up to date, or free of third-party IP issues. Public domain content is provided as a convenience, and you use it at your own risk.

Intellectual Property

Aegus IP

As between you and Aegus, Aegus or its licensors retain all right, title, and interest, including all intellectual property rights, in and to the Services and any and all improvements, modifications or enhancements thereto, as well as all related software programs, data, documentation, specifications, descriptions, algorithms, models, methods, processes, techniques and know-how (the "Aegus IP") and no Aegus IP is transferred to you.

Feedback

We appreciate feedback, comments, ideas, proposals and suggestions for improvements to the Services ("Feedback"). You hereby assign to Aegus all rights in and to any Feedback without any restriction or compensation to you.

Copyright Complaints

We respect the intellectual property rights of others and expect you to do the same. If you are a copyright owner or an agent thereof and believe that any materials accessible on or from the Services infringe your copyright, you may report the alleged copyright infringements and request removal of those materials (or access to them) from the Services by submitting a DMCA Notice of Alleged Infringement ("DMCA Notice") to our copyright agent designated below. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (17 U.S.C. § 512) ("DMCA"), we will respond expeditiously to those claims of copyright infringement. The DMCA Notice must include substantially the following:

Your physical or electronic signature.
Identification of the copyrighted work you believe to have been infringed or, if the claim involves multiple works on the Services, a representative list of such works.
Identification of the material you believe to be infringing in a sufficiently precise manner to allow us to locate that material.
Adequate information by which we can contact you (including your name, postal address, telephone number, and, if available, email address).
A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the materials is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
A statement that the information in the written notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

Please deliver the DMCA Notice, with all items completed, to our designated copyright agent:

If you fail to comply with all of the requirements of Section 512(c)(3) of the DMCA, your DMCA Notice may not be effective. Please be aware that if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or activity on the Services is infringing your copyright, you may be held liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) under Section 512(f) of the DMCA.

Use Restrictions

As a platform dedicated to accelerating rigorous research, Aegus expects all users to use our Services responsibly. You agree not to use the Services:

In a way that violates any applicable statutory law or regulation.
In a way that misappropriates, violates, or otherwise infringes upon a third party's rights.
In a way that violates academic integrity standards, including misrepresenting AI-generated Output as independently verified work where such representation is prohibited by your institution, publisher, or funding body.
In a way that could have a legal or material impact on a third party.
In a way that could cause risk or harm to a third party.
In a way that reverse-engineers, disassembles, decompiles, derives access to, decodes, exploits, or otherwise grants access to our intellectual property, source code, or the underlying structure of any of the Services.
In a way that aids in developing products or services to compete with our Services, including any way that reproduces, modifies, translates, rents, leases, lends, resells, or creates derivative works of the Services.
In a way that scrapes, bulk-downloads, or systematically extracts the literature corpus, Licensed Materials, or other data from the Services.
In a way that probes, scans, or attempts to penetrate the Services without explicit authorization from an authorized representative of Aegus to do so.
In a way that provides Aegus with any data that is subject to specific protections under applicable laws and in which you do not have the right to disclose.
In a way that abuses, harms, interferes with, or disrupts the Services.
In a way that knowingly permits a third party to do any of the foregoing.

Aegus is not obligated to monitor all activity but reserves the right to do so to ensure compliance with these Terms and applicable law. We may remove or disable access to the Services at our discretion and without notice if we determine it violates these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved by Aegus.

Subscriptions and Payment

We reserve the right to modify the subscription fees and payment policies from time to time. Subscriptions will be automatically renewed until earlier cancelled before the end of the current period. You can cancel via your account settings or by contacting us, but no refunds are provided for the current period. Except as otherwise specified herein or in any purchase order, all subscription fees and applicable taxes are quoted and payable in US dollars. Payment is non-cancelable and non-refundable.

Payments can be made via third parties. These payment processing services are subject to their own terms and conditions, privacy notice, and all other relevant agreements. By agreeing to these Terms, you hereby agree to be bound by the terms of the applicable payment processor and authorize the applicable payment processor to bill your specified subscription fees. We assume no liability for any payments you make through a payment processor.

You agree to provide current, complete, and accurate purchase and account information for all purchases made via the Services. You further agree to promptly update account and payment information, including email address, payment method, and payment card expiration date, so that we can complete your transactions and contact you as needed. Sales tax will be added to the price of purchases as deemed required by us. All payments shall be in US dollars.

Beta Offerings

We offer Services in beta or limited release stages for testing, evaluation, proof of concept, or similar purposes (collectively, "Beta Offerings"). You may choose to use Beta Offerings at your sole discretion. If you use Beta Offerings, you agree to, at our request, report any issues or errors, suggest improvements, and provide us with necessary information for evaluation. Notwithstanding anything provided in these Terms, we make no representation or warranty and shall have no liability whatsoever in relation to the content or use of any Beta Offerings, and you are fully responsible for any damages incurred during your use of Beta Offerings. We may change, suspend, or discontinue Beta Offerings at any time in our sole discretion.

Change to the Services

We may update our Services from time to time at our discretion. These updates are to improve the capacities and capabilities of the Services, and it may include the addition or removal of features within the Services. Similarly, we reserve the right to remove any Content from the Services at any time, for any reason, in our sole discretion, and without notice.

Third-Party Services

You may be able to link from the Services to third-party websites, software, services, or other resources that take you outside of the Services, or connect the Services to third-party tools such as cloud storage providers (for example, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or a cloud storage bucket) or external data sources ("Third-Party Services"). We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources. We have no responsibility for the information, content, products, services, advertising, code, or other material provided through the Third-Party Services. Your interactions with Third-Party Services are subject to their own terms.

Account Termination

We reserve the right to terminate or suspend access to your account or your use of the Services at our discretion, including for breach of these Terms. You can permanently delete your account at any time. Please refer to our Privacy Policy to understand how we handle information you provide after you stop using our Services.

Account termination may result in the deletion of any Content associated with your account. We will try to provide advance notice before terminating your account so you can retrieve any important Content (subject to law and these Terms), but we may not do so if it's impractical, illegal, compromises safety or security, or harms our rights or property. Deleting your account means losing access to any unused paid subscription plans. No refunds will be issued after account deletion.

Provisions that, by their nature, should survive termination of these Terms shall survive termination. For example, the following will survive termination: any obligation you have to pay us or indemnify us, any limitations on our liability, any terms regarding ownership or intellectual property rights, and terms regarding disputes resolutions.

Warranty Disclaimer

OUR SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS." EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY LAW, WE AND OUR AFFILIATES AND LICENSORS MAKE NO WARRANTIES (EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE) WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICES, AND DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF ANY COURSE OF DEALING OR TRADE USAGE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ACCURATE OR ERROR FREE, OR THAT ANY CONTENT WILL BE SECURE OR NOT LOST OR ALTERED.

YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE THAT ANY USE OF OUTPUT FROM OUR SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND YOU WILL NOT RELY ON OUTPUT AS A SOLE SOURCE OF TRUTH OR FACTUAL INFORMATION, OR AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE, ACADEMIC PRACTICE, PEER REVIEW, OR INDEPENDENT RESEARCH.

Limitation of Liability

NEITHER WE NOR ANY OF OUR AFFILIATES OR LICENSORS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, OR DATA OR OTHER LOSSES, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY UNDER THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR THE SERVICE THAT GAVE RISE TO THE CLAIM DURING THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE LIABILITY AROSE OR ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100). THE LIMITATIONS IN THIS SECTION APPLY ONLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

Some countries and states do not allow the disclaimer of certain warranties or the limitation of certain damages, so some or all of the terms above may not apply to you, and you may have additional rights. In that case, these terms only limit our responsibilities to the maximum extent permissible in your country of residence.

Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless us, our affiliates, officers, agents, employees, and partners, from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses and expenses (including attorneys' fees) arising from or in any way related to any third party claims relating to (a) your use of the Services and Content (including any actions taken by a third party using your account), and (b) your violation of these Terms.

Changes to the Terms

We may at our sole discretion change, add, modify, or delete portions of these Terms from time to time. Your continued use of the Services following the posting of changes to these Terms constitutes your acceptance of any changes.

Miscellaneous

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, without reference to its choice-of-laws rules. The exclusive jurisdiction and venue for any action under these Terms will be in the state and federal courts of [County], Florida. You accept the exclusive personal jurisdiction of such courts. You may not assign any rights granted to you or delegate any of your duties hereunder and any attempt to do so is void and of no effect. We may assign our rights and delegate our duties under these Terms in their entirety in connection with a merger, reorganization, or sale of all, or substantially all, of our assets relating to these Terms. Nothing in these Terms will constitute a partnership or joint venture between you and us. These Terms and our Privacy Policy set forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to the subject matter hereof. If any provision of these Terms is invalid or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, the other provisions herein will remain in full force and effect.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at legal@aegus.io.