encoded_brands

Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-09-16

These terms apply immediately to accounts created and purchases completed on or after August 31, 2026. For existing account holders, material changes take effect on September 30, 2026, subject to Section 16.

These terms cover your use of the Encoder and the Registry, operated by Estuary Group LLC, doing business as Encoded Brands ("Encoded", "we", "us"). By creating an account, accepting these terms at checkout, or using the service, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

These terms are written in plain language on purpose. If anything is unclear, write to us at the contact address at the end.

1. The service

The Encoder takes your inputs, including your domain, documents, and interview answers, and produces a Brand Context Protocol (BCP): a set of structured Markdown files that describes your brand for use by you and by AI agents. You may publish those files yourself or host them through our Registry.

We may change, improve, or discontinue parts of the service. The Brand Context Protocol specification evolves. The files you generate reflect the specification version current at the time you generate them.

Publication integrity, verification, and certification

These signals answer different questions and are not interchangeable:

  • Draft means a BCP is still being worked on and is not public.
  • Claimed means a BCP is published in the Registry and managed by the publishing account, but has no current Registry attestation of domain control. Registry publications are signed for integrity. A publication signature shows whether the signed files have changed since publication; it does not prove that their contents are true or that the publisher controls the brand's domain.
  • Verified means the authenticated publishing account completed a fresh Registry-issued DNS challenge for the claimed domain. While the verification is current, the Registry may show trust_level: verified and official_brand_source: true. Verification proves domain control when the challenge succeeds and records when the same proof was most recently observed. It does not prove the truth, legality, or completeness of the BCP, the identity of every person with account or DNS access, or endorsement by Encoded. Verification expires no later than one year after it succeeds and must be renewed annually with a fresh challenge. During that annual term, the Registry automatically checks the existing DNS proof at least every 30 days; a successful check does not extend the expiry date. Resolver outages are retried, while confirmed removal or conflict may revoke verification early.
  • Registry Certified is a paid service designation separate from Claimed or Verified status. It records a visible mark and machine-readable service status for the active published revision. Certification is not a warranty that every statement is true, legally compliant, or suitable for every use. Registry Certified does not by itself prove domain control or set official_brand_source: true.

You should publish only BCPs you are authorized to manage. For verification, brand transfer, certification, or takedown questions, contact team@encodedbrands.ai. The public handle dispute and takedown path is encoder.encodedbrands.ai/dispute.

2. Accounts

You must provide accurate account information and keep your credentials secure. You are responsible for activity under your account, including activity performed through an API key or by a collaborator or software agent you authorize. You must be at least 18 and authorized to bind the brand you encode.

3. Payment and automatic renewal

Current self-service offerings are:

  • Free. One complete encoding, all eight core BCP files, a stable claimed Registry address while published, manual revisions, and optional DNS verification. No credit card is required.
  • AI-assisted re-encode. $49 USD as a one-time purchase when the re-encode is not included in an active paid plan.
  • Registry Certified. $5,988 USD per year, billed annually. Registry Certified includes named audit of authenticated gated access, owner controls for who can receive gated material, signed history with diffs and restore, tools to keep the published record healthy, a certification mark and machine-readable service status for the active revision, unlimited teammates, priority human support, and up to 100 AI-assisted re-encodes during each subscription year. Public brand files stay public. Privacy-safe aggregate public-read analytics are not named-user audit records.
  • Autonomous agent registration. $499 USD as a one-time purchase. It includes registration, an API credential, and the agent's first encoding. Any later agent-initiated charge is disclosed through the payment request before it is authorized.
  • Enterprise. Custom scope and pricing stated in an order form, statement of work, or other written agreement.

Taxes may apply. Payments are processed by Stripe. A separate written Enterprise agreement controls if it conflicts with these terms.

Registry Certified renews automatically each year at the then-current annual price until you cancel. Your subscription year begins when the first charge is processed and renews on the corresponding date each year. By subscribing, you authorize us to charge your payment method on each renewal date.

You may cancel Registry Certified at any time from the Billing Portal in your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current subscription year. You will not be charged again after that date. Your Registry record remains live after cancellation, and you retain your BCP files. Certification, included re-encodes, priority support, and other paid-only services end when the paid period ends. Free manual revision and optional DNS verification remain available.

Payments made in stablecoins or other crypto assets are final and non-refundable. On-chain transfers cannot be reversed, and we cannot return funds to a sending address. If a crypto-paid encoding fails on our end, our remedy is a re-run of the encoding, not a refund.

Prices may change for future purchases and renewal periods. We will give existing subscribers at least 30 days' email notice before a Registry Certified price change takes effect. Purchases made under prior pricing or terms are governed by the terms presented and accepted at the time of purchase, except where a later change validly takes effect under Section 16.

4. Refunds

Our Refund and Return Policy is incorporated into these terms. Subscription and one-time purchase fees are generally non-refundable after the applicable service period or digital work begins. We correct documented billing errors, including duplicate charges, charges for the wrong amount, and charges made after a confirmed cancellation took effect.

If you initiate a chargeback before contacting us, we may suspend the affected account while the charge is investigated.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • Submit content you do not have the rights to use, or that infringes anyone's rights.
  • Encode a brand you are not authorized to represent.
  • Submit unlawful, deceptive, or harmful content, or use the output to mislead.
  • Submit or publish content that is defamatory, libelous, hateful, harassing, or that incites violence.
  • Submit personally identifiable information about other people, such as names, contact details, or government identifiers, without a lawful basis and any required consent.
  • Attempt to break, overload, probe, reverse-engineer, or gain unauthorized access to the service or to another customer's data.
  • Use automated means to scrape or extract our methodology, prompts, or scoring systems.
  • Resell, sublicense, or relabel the service as your own without our written agreement.

You are responsible for the inputs you provide and for reviewing the output before you publish or rely on it. The Encoder proposes; you decide. The Encoder is designed to identify gaps rather than invent facts, but like any AI system it can produce inaccurate or incomplete output. You must review your BCP and confirm that it is accurate and appropriate for your use.

Automated and agent use

You may operate the Encoder through software agents or automated tools, including through an API key we issue. If you do, you are fully responsible for everything that agent does under your account or key, exactly as if you did it yourself. That includes the sources it submits, the answers it gives, and any BCP it compiles or publishes on its own, without a person reviewing it first. We do not review or supervise agent activity on your behalf, and how your agent reports back to you is between you and your agent. By authorizing an agent, you authorize those actions and accept responsibility for them. Keep your API key secret. You are responsible for activity under it until you ask us to revoke it. Where payment is required, your agent presents a payment credential to complete the charge, and you authorize that charge in the same way as any other purchase under your account.

An agent may also register itself, with no person in the loop, by completing payment through our agent registration endpoint. When an agent registers itself this way, the person or entity that controls the payment credential accepts these terms when payment completes, becomes the account owner, and is liable for activity performed under the API key we issue, including content the agent compiles or publishes on its own. If you control a payment credential used to register an agent and want the key shut off, write to support@encodedbrands.ai and we will revoke it. If the agent provides a contact email at registration, we will use it for required notices about the account, such as content-removal notices.

Content moderation and removal

We may review, screen, flag, suspend, or remove content submitted to or published through the service, at our discretion and without prior notice, including content we reasonably believe violates these terms or any law; infringes or violates another person's rights; is defamatory, hateful, or harassing; contains personally identifiable information used without a lawful basis; or is otherwise harmful, deceptive, or problematic. We are not obligated to monitor content, but we reserve the right to. Removal of hosted content may include taking down the public Registry endpoint for the affected brand. Where practical and lawful, we will tell the account owner what we removed and why.

Copyright and infringement complaints

If you believe content published through the service infringes your copyright, trademark, or other rights, use the public path at /dispute or email team@encodedbrands.ai. Identify the protected work or right, the Registry URL or other location of the material, your contact information, the basis for your complaint, and the action you request. We may remove or disable access to disputed material while we investigate and may ask the publisher for a response. We may terminate accounts that repeatedly infringe other people's rights.

6. Your content and editorial control

You own the inputs you provide and the BCP you generate ("Customer Content").

Your responsibility and final say. You have final editorial control over your BCP. The Encoder produces drafts; nothing becomes public unless you, or an agent you authorize, publishes it. By publishing a BCP, you confirm that you are authorized to publish it, approve its contents, and accept responsibility for it. Encoded's automated checks, certification, verification, or hosting do not make Encoded the publisher of your Customer Content or transfer that responsibility to Encoded. This applies when an agent acting under your account, API key, or payment credential publishes without a person reviewing the output first.

You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide license to host, store, process, transmit, reproduce, display, review, and analyze Customer Content as needed to: (a) operate and deliver the service, including hosting your BCP in the Registry if you publish it; (b) secure the service and enforce these terms; (c) provide support; and (d) improve and develop the service as described in Section 7.

Customer names and logos. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use your company name, trade name, trademarks, service marks, and logos solely to identify you as an Encoded customer in our marketing, customer lists, website, presentations, case studies, social posts, and similar materials. We will not use your name or logo in a way that states or implies an endorsement beyond your status as a customer. If you send us written notice asking us to stop, we will stop new uses within a reasonable time, though existing materials already produced or distributed may remain until they are reasonably refreshed or retired.

Sources you submit. When you submit a domain, URL, file, or other source material, you authorize us and our service providers to access, retrieve, process, and analyze content from those properties and materials to create, maintain, revise, verify, certify, and host your BCP. This authorization covers ordinary automated retrieval and, where a property blocks ordinary automated access, managed browser retrieval performed through a third-party service acting as our subprocessor. The subprocessors we use for retrieval are identified in our Privacy Policy. You represent and warrant that you own, control, administer, or are otherwise authorized to submit each domain, URL, file, and source you provide, and that our retrieval and processing of that material as described in these terms does not violate any third-party right, contractual restriction, or applicable law.

Open-web research. Building your BCP also draws on open-web research. We run search queries about your brand and its market and read public pages, including pages on sites you did not submit. Where those pages block ordinary automated access, we may use the same managed browser retrieval described above. This research is limited to publicly available material and is used only to inform your BCP. It does not create authorization from you regarding third-party sites, and we make no representation about our right to access those sites beyond what public availability and applicable law permit.

A published BCP is a public file by design. Anyone, and any agent, can fetch and read it until you unpublish or delete it. Unpublished Customer Content is treated as your confidential information, and we access it only for the purposes described in these terms and the Privacy Policy.

7. Service improvement and session review

Building a better Encoder requires understanding where encoding sessions succeed and where they fail. You agree that:

We may review your sessions. Authorized Encoded personnel, bound by confidentiality obligations, may access and review Customer Content, including uploaded documents, the encoding interview, and generated outputs, to evaluate quality, tune our interview, prompts, parsers, and scoring systems, diagnose errors, develop features, operate the service, and respond to support requests.

We may create derived data. We may create and use aggregated, anonymized, or de-identified data and learnings derived from sessions, provided they do not identify you or your brand. Derived data is ours, may be used for any lawful purpose, and survives termination of your account.

Bright lines. Your identifiable Customer Content is never disclosed to another customer, never used in another customer's session, and never used to train machine-learning models without your separate, prior consent. Anonymized derived data is not Customer Content.

Feedback. If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use it without restriction or obligation to you.

8. Intellectual property

The Encoder, the Registry, our methodology, scoring rubrics, prompts, software, derived data, and all related intellectual property belong to Encoded Brands or its licensors. These terms grant you no rights in them except the right to use the service.

The Brand Context Protocol is Encoded's Registry brand-truth format. These terms grant you no rights in Encoded's specification, Encoder, Registry, or methodology except the right to use the service.

9. Disclaimer

The service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that output is error-free, complete, legally compliant, or suitable for a particular use. We do not warrant that third-party AI tools and agents will fetch, parse, or follow your BCP. Publication signatures prove integrity of signed bytes, DNS verification proves control at a recorded point in time, and Registry Certified records a paid service designation for the active published revision. None of those signals is a warranty of factual accuracy, legal compliance, identity, endorsement, or business results. The certification mark does not certify that every statement is true. The Encoder is a drafting and publishing tool, not legal, branding, or compliance advice.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Encoded will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or related to the service, even if advised of the possibility.

Our total liability for all claims relating to the service will not exceed the total fees you paid us in the 90 days preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations. In those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the maximum extent the law permits.

11. Indemnification

You will defend and indemnify Encoded against third-party claims, and resulting damages, judgments, settlements, and reasonable legal costs, arising from: (a) inputs or Customer Content you submit; (b) your BCP or your use, publication, or distribution of output generated through the service, whether through the Registry or otherwise; (c) your breach of these terms; (d) your encoding or publication of a brand you were not authorized to represent; or (e) activity performed by a collaborator, agent, or automated tool operating under your account, API key, or payment credential.

We will promptly notify you of an indemnified claim, allow you to control its defense and settlement, and provide reasonable cooperation at your expense. You may not settle a claim in a way that admits liability by Encoded or imposes an obligation on Encoded without our written consent, which we will not unreasonably withhold.

12. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these terms, if your payment fails and is not cured, if continued access creates a documented security, impersonation, or legal risk, or if required by law. You may stop using the service and delete your account at any time. Sections 4 through 11 and 13 through 17 survive termination to the extent their subject matter requires.

13. Disputes and arbitration

Any dispute arising from or relating to these terms or the service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules, in Marin County, California, or remotely by agreement. You and Encoded each waive the right to a jury trial and the right to participate in a class action or class arbitration.

This section does not prevent either party from seeking emergency injunctive relief in court or bringing an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. For any matter not subject to arbitration, you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in California.

15. General

Severability. If any provision of these terms is held invalid or unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions continue in full force.

Entire agreement. These terms, the Refund and Return Policy, and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Encoded regarding the service unless you have a separate written agreement with us. They supersede prior representations or understandings about the service.

Waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision on one occasion does not waive our right to enforce it, or another provision, on another occasion.

Assignment. You may not assign these terms without our written consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For existing account holders, material changes take effect no sooner than 30 days after we send notice to the account email. Continued use after the stated effective date constitutes acceptance. A person creating a new account or completing a new purchase is governed by the terms presented and expressly accepted at that time. The "Last updated" date above identifies the current published version.

17. Contact

Questions about these terms: team@encodedbrands.ai

Estuary Group LLC d/b/a Encoded Brands

1005 Northgate Drive, #193

San Rafael, CA 94903