Sample Terms and Conditions Template

Terms and Conditions agreements serve as a legally binding contract between you (the business) who manages a mobile application or a website and the customer who uses your app or visits your website.

They are otherwise called Terms of Use or Terms of Service agreements and are shortened as T&Cs (or ToU and ToS, respectively).

No two businesses are identical, and as such, every business needs a unique T&C agreement designed to meet its specific needs. While some clauses are conventional and usually seen in basically every Terms and Conditions agreement, you ultimately decide what regulations and guidelines your customers must accept.

Let's take a look at what clauses should go into most Terms and Conditions agreements, as well as how to display and get legal agreement to your T&C.

Although employing a Terms and Conditions agreement is fully optional as there are no laws that necessitate it, this agreement is highly recommended by experts and presents lots of benefits for both your company and customers.

What are the Advantages of Having a Terms and Conditions Agreement?

Some of the advantages to be derived include the following:

• Clarity

  Terms and Conditions agreements provide clarity about what should occur in any given circumstance. They set out the essential business terms you are offering to your customers and help contractual parties to understand their rights, obligations, functions, and accountabilities.

• A Comprehensive system

  Your Terms and Conditions agreement produces a well-organized and comprehensive system by covering commercial terms such as delivery, price, payment, and other areas often overlooked by businesses.

  They also proceed to limit your liability, disclaiming your liability for failure or delay caused by inevitable circumstances, therefore protecting your intellectual property rights.

• Conformity with Laws

  There may be specific regulations that apply to your industry, and you may refer to them in your Terms and Conditions. Having a defined Terms and Conditions agreement helps ensure conformity with applicable laws.

• Confidence and Consistency

  Having a clear set of Terms and Conditions helps you deliver a consistently excellent level of customer service while avoiding any ambiguity.

  By doing this, customer's expectations are well-managed regarding delivery and payment, therefore eliminating disappointments in your provision of services.

• Assurance

  If you have a clear set of Terms and Conditions, it is considerably easier to spot a breach of contract. Written contracts provide assurance and are easier to enforce whenever required.

  Having a comprehensive set of Terms and Conditions also helps minimize the probability of getting a legal dispute. It is more prudent to have a Terms and Conditions agreement prepared than be involved in prolonged and expensive litigation.

What are Some Clauses I Should Add to my Terms and Conditions Agreement?

Terms and Conditions are considerably broad in the abstract sense. However, as businesses differ, they require some specific clauses that are exclusive only to their form of business, depending on:

• The size of the contract
• The complexity of the agreement
• The industry

Generally, almost every Terms and Conditions agreement should include the subsequent clauses:

An Intellectual Property clause

This clause is a provision where you, the business owner or inventor, retains ownership of your patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade dresses, or trade secrets. Intellectual property security is crucial to promoting innovation. Without the protection of ideas, individuals and businesses would not gain the full benefits of their creativity and would concentrate less on research and development.

Here's an example of Amazon's Intellectual Property Policy for sellers on its platform:

This excerpt from Amazon sets out what sellers must do, and what they must not do when it comes to IP rights. It also adds some definitions and extra information for clarity, which is helpful to the readers.