Terms of Use

01Introduction and acceptance

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of thehongkongmill.com (the "Site") and, unless superseded by a signed engagement agreement, the intelligence services, reports, indices, notes, cards, and other materials made available by The Hong Kong Mill Group Limited ("HKM", "we", "us"). By accessing the Site, requesting materials, or engaging our services, you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, you should not use the Site or our services.

In these Terms: "Outputs" means any report, brief, index, indicator, card, note, dataset, score, chart, methodology description, or other material produced or delivered by HKM, whether public or client-specific; "Client Materials" means any data, documents, or information you provide to us; and "Engagement Agreement" means any signed engagement letter, statement of work, or subscription agreement between you and HKM.

02Eligibility and authority

The Site and our services are directed at business and institutional users. By using them on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you are authorised to bind that organisation to these Terms, and "you" includes that organisation.

03Nature of our services — decision infrastructure, not investment advice

04Relationship between these Terms and Engagement Agreements

Where you have entered into an Engagement Agreement with HKM, the terms of that agreement prevail over these Terms to the extent of any inconsistency in respect of the services it covers. These Terms continue to govern your use of the Site and any public Outputs.

05Intellectual property and licence

All Outputs, and all methodologies, models, metrics, frameworks, scores (including the Sentiment, Dominant Emotion, Volume Score, and Growth Velocity metrics, and the Mill Alpha format), templates, software, designs, wordmarks, and other materials created or used by HKM, are and remain the exclusive property of HKM or its licensors, protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. No title passes to you under any circumstance.

Subject to payment of applicable fees, HKM grants the recipient of a client-specific Output a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable licence to use that Output for the recipient's own internal business purposes only. Except with HKM's prior written consent, you must not: (a) reproduce, publish, distribute, resell, or otherwise make any Output available to any third party, in whole or in part; (b) remove or alter any proprietary notice; (c) use any Output, or permit it to be used, to develop, train, or improve any product or service that competes with HKM, including any machine-learning model or dataset; or (d) represent any Output as your own work or as endorsed by HKM. Brief quotations of public Outputs with clear attribution to The Hong Kong Mill are permitted for commentary and review.

If you provide suggestions or feedback, you grant HKM a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use them without restriction or obligation.

06Client Materials and data handling

You retain ownership of Client Materials. You warrant that you have all rights, consents, and lawful bases necessary to provide Client Materials to HKM for the purposes of the engagement, and that their provision and our contemplated use do not infringe any third-party right or applicable law. Client Materials are handled under the Air-Gap Principle described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

07Acceptable use of the Site

You must not: (a) use the Site or any Output for any unlawful purpose or in breach of any applicable law or regulation; (b) scrape, crawl, harvest, or systematically extract content from the Site by automated means; (c) reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the underlying methodologies, source data, or models of any Output except to the extent such restriction is prohibited by law; (d) interfere with the security or operation of the Site; or (e) misrepresent your identity or affiliation when interacting with us.

08Third-party platforms and source data

Outputs are derived in part from information publicly available on third-party platforms and markets. HKM is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any such platform. We do not control, and are not responsible for, the accuracy, completeness, availability, or continuity of third-party data sources, and Outputs may be affected by changes to those sources beyond our control. References to platform or model names denote technologies used or analysed within HKM's stack only.

09Public artefacts and indices

Public Outputs — including any published index, weekly note summary, or sample material — are provided for general information only, "as is" and as at their stated date. Historical performance, calibration, or validation records are historical facts only and are not a promise, projection, or guarantee of future readings or outcomes. HKM may modify, suspend, or discontinue any public Output at any time without notice.

10Confidentiality

Each party must keep confidential the non-public terms of any engagement, deliverables designated confidential, and the other party's non-public business information, and use them only for the purposes of the engagement, except where disclosure is required by law or regulation. No client-specific Output is shared by HKM with any third party without written instruction.

11Fees

Fees, invoicing, and payment terms for services are set out in the applicable Engagement Agreement or written quotation. Unless stated otherwise, fees are exclusive of applicable taxes and are non-refundable once the relevant service period has commenced or delivery has occurred.

12Disclaimers

The Site and all Outputs are provided in good faith and on a best-efforts basis, "as is" and "as available", without warranty or condition of any kind, whether express or implied, including any warranty of accuracy, completeness, timeliness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. Signal analysis is probabilistic by nature: readings can be wrong, and HKM does not warrant that any Output will identify every relevant development or that reliance on any Output will produce any particular commercial result. You remain solely responsible for every decision you take, and any use of Outputs to inform trading, investment, or financial decisions is entirely at your own risk.

13Limitation of liability

14Indemnity

You shall indemnify and hold harmless HKM, its directors, officers, and personnel against all losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with: (a) your breach of these Terms; (b) your use, publication, or redistribution of any Output in breach of clause 05; or (c) Client Materials, including any claim that their provision or use as contemplated infringes any right or law.

15Suspension and termination

HKM may suspend or terminate your access to the Site or to any public Output immediately where we reasonably consider that you have breached these Terms. Termination of engagements is governed by the applicable Engagement Agreement. Clauses 03, 05, 06, 10, 12, 13, 14, and 17–19 survive termination.

16Force majeure

HKM is not liable for any delay or failure to perform caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including platform or data-source outages or restrictions, network failures, acts of government, epidemics, or force majeure events.

17General

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any Engagement Agreement, constitute the entire agreement between you and HKM regarding their subject matter. If any provision is held invalid, the remainder continues in effect. No failure to enforce any provision is a waiver of it. You may not assign your rights under these Terms without our written consent; HKM may assign to an affiliate or in connection with a reorganisation. Except as expressly stated, no person other than the parties has any right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Ordinance (Cap. 623) to enforce any of these Terms.

18Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them (including non-contractual disputes) are governed by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Hong Kong.

19Changes and contact

We may revise these Terms from time to time; the revised version takes effect when posted on this page with an updated effective date, and your continued use constitutes acceptance. Enquiries: hello@thehongkongmill.com.