Disclaimer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about legal disclaimers in general. For the Wikipedia disclaimers, please
see Wikipedia:General disclaimer. For the Seether album see Disclaimer (album).

This is a volleyball court in a business park inGoleta, California, USA. A disclaimer is posted on the sign standing
at the right hand side of the volleyball court.

A disclaimer is generally any statement intended to specify or delimit the scope of rights and
obligations that may be exercised and enforced by parties in a legally recognized relationship. In
contrast to other terms for legally operative language, the term disclaimer usually implies
situations that involve some level of uncertainty, waiver, or risk.
A disclaimer may specify mutually agreed and privately arranged terms and conditions as part of
a contract; or may specify warnings or expectations to the general public (or some other class of
persons) in order to fulfill a duty of care owed to prevent unreasonable risk of harm or injury.
Some disclaimers are intended to limit exposure to damages after a harm or injury has already
been suffered. Additionally, some kinds of disclaimers may represent a voluntary waiver of a right
or obligation that may be owed to the disclaimant.
Disclaimers vary in terms of their uniformity. Some may vary depending on the specific context
and parties involved, while other types of disclaimers may strictly adhere to a uniform and
established set of formalities that are rarely or never modified, except under official authority.
Some of these formal disclaimers are required pursuant to industry regulation, qualification for
protection under a safe harbor, and other situations where the exact wording of a particular
clause or document may be dispositive in the event of a legal dispute. (See e.g., Product
liability, Toxicity Class, Rule against perpetuities, Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act.)
The presence of a disclaimer in a legally binding agreement does not necessarily guarantee that
the terms of the disclaimer will be recognized and enforced in a legal dispute. There may be other
legal considerations that render a disclaimer void either in whole or part.
Contents
[hide]

1 Tort law

2 Patent law

3 Estate law

4 Literature

5 See also

6 References

Tort law[edit]

Sign on bridge, warning: "Use at own risk"

In law, a disclaimer is a statement denying responsibility intended to prevent civil liability arising
for particular acts or omissions. Disclaimers are frequently made to escape the effects of the torts
of negligence and of occupiers' liability towards visitors. The courts may or may not give effect to
the disclaimer depending on whether the law permits exclusion of liability in the particular
situation and whether the acts or omissions complained of fall within the wording of the
disclaimer.
A disclaimer may take effect as a term of the contract between the person making the disclaimer
and the person who is thereby prevented from suing. This kind of disclaimer is, for example,
invariably found in the 'terms and conditions' that a software user is confronted with when first
installing the software. There will often be term excluding any liability for any damage that the
software might cause to the rest of the user's software and hardware. By clicking "I Agree" in the
dialogue box, users are agreeing to this disclaimer as matter of contract between themselves and
the software company.

Disclaimer of liability for "equine professionals" (Indiana)

At common law, disclaimers can also have effect as conditions of a license (i.e. permission) to
enter land. An occupier of land will have certain duties to take care for the personal safety of
people he or she allows onto the premises. By placing a sign at the entrance to the premises,
such as "visitors enter at their own risk", the occupier may be able to stop entrants successfully
suing in tort for damage or injury caused by the unsafe nature of the premises. Warnings or
disclaimers contained in signs may, by a slightly different legal analysis leading to the same
result, allow the person who would otherwise be responsible to rely on the defense of consent.
Under UK law, the validity of disclaimers is significantly limited by the Unfair Contract Terms Act
1977. By virtue of the Act, a business cannot use a contract term or a notice to exclude or restrict
its liability for negligence causing death or personal injury. In the case of other loss or damage, a
disclaimer will only be effective so long as it is reasonable in all the circumstances. The common
law in other nations may also place legal limits on the validity of disclaimers; for instance,
the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has previously successfully sued Target
Australia for the usage of inaccessible disclaimers in advertisements (the televised
advertisements in question contained disclaimers that were only shown on screen for 1.50
seconds).
In the United States, disclaimers on the sale of goods are covered by Article 2 of the Uniform
Commercial Code, but details vary by state. Unless considered unconscionable, disclaimers are
generally enforceable as part of a contract between knowledgeable parties of comparable
bargaining power, but most states do not allow a party to limit their liability for gross negligence. [1]

Patent law[edit]
Main article: Disclaimer (patent)
In patent law, a disclaimer identifies, in a claim, subject-matter that is not claimed.[2] By extension,
a disclaimer may also mean the action of introduction a negative limitation in a claim, i.e. "an
amendment to a claim resulting in the incorporation therein of a "negative" technical feature,
typically excluding from a general feature specific embodiments or areas". [3] The allowability of
disclaimers is subject to particular conditions, which may vary widely from one jurisdiction to
another.
A prosecution disclaimer is another type of disclaimer in patent law. Under United States patent
law a prosecution disclaimer is a statement made by a patent applicant duringexamination of
a patent application which can limit the scope of protection provided by the resulting patent. It is
one type of file-wrapper estoppel, the other being prosecution history estoppel.

Estate law[edit]
Main article: Disclaimer of interest
In estate or inheritance law, a disclaimer (also called disclaimer of interest) is a written document
voluntarily signed by an heir to an estate in which the said heir does not accept (disclaims) the

part of the estate of a deceased person which the heir is entitled to receive. The disclaimed part
of the estate is then inherited not necessarily by a person of the disclaiming heir's choice, but by
the next heir in line to receive that part of the estate as if the disclaiming heir were also deceased,
either according to the will, beneficiary designation, or the laws of intestacy.
Government tax agencies have further rules on such disclaimers. Reasons for such disclaimers
may include imminent death of the disclaimant or the fact that the disclaimant already has
enough wealth.