Terms of use

When you use our websites like Kew.org, and other websites we own, you are agreeing to a set of terms that apply to your interaction with those websites.

These terms cover matters like how you can use the websites and content within them, ownership of the content and our liability.

If you don’t agree to the terms the below, then please do not use the websites.

These terms are different to our privacy policy, which tells you about how we collect information and how we use it and protect us.

Terms

These terms of use apply to the content of the website under the domain name ‘www.kew.org’ and any associated subdomains and websites facilitated and branded by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (the 'Website’).

The Website is operated by the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew ('we', 'us' or 'our’). We are a non-departmental public body with exempt charitable status, whose principal place of business is at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AE.

Some of the information contained in these Terms may be superseded by terms or notices published elsewhere on our Website.

Changes to these Terms:

The Terms found on this page may be amended at any time. You should check this page regularly to see if anything has changed, as it will apply to your use of the Website.

Availability of our Website:

We can’t guarantee that the Website will always be available or be uninterrupted.

We may have to suspend or withdraw, amend, update or restrict the availability of all or any part of the Website at any time without giving advance notice. We are not liable if, for any reason, the Website is unavailable or out of date at any time or for any period.

Prohibited Uses:

You can only use our site for lawful purposes. You can’t use our site:

in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation
in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect
in any way which is abusive, defamatory or obscene or which will harass, distress or inconvenience anyone which might restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of the Website by anyone
to send, or procure the sending of, spam – that is any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation
to knowingly send any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware
in any way that causes interruption or damage to the Website or renders it impaired or less efficient
to disseminate advertisements or for any other commercial purposes (which would include using the Website to promote or encourage the sale of your goods/services)
In any way that might bring us, any of our employees, volunteers or affiliates into disrepute.

Intellectual property rights:

Intellectual property rights is a term that refers to ownership of creative material, like the things we write, make, produce, design or invent.

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our Website and in the content published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

Nothing contained in the Website shall be considered as granting any licence or as a given right to use our trademark. This also applies to any third-party intellectual property displayed on our Website. Any usage will require either our prior written permission or that of any third-party owner. Any misuse of the trademarks on our Website by you is strictly prohibited.

You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors. If you would like to discuss licensing arrangements, please contact us at licensing@kew.org.

You must always acknowledge Kew and any other any other identified contributors as authors of content on our Website.

Some of the content of our Website is available under specific licence terms. For example, our pages containing science data and digital resources are governed by separate terms of use. Data and information on these pages are available under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC-BY) and © copyright The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. You must review the licence terms before using any of the content for any purpose and must comply with their respective terms, including crediting the licensor, citing and/or referencing the content correctly.

Links:

We are happy for you to link to our home page, provided it is in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part if none exists. You must not link to our home page from any website that is not owned by you.

Unless expressly permitted on this Website, or under a separate licence agreement, our Website must not be framed on any other website, nor may you create a link to any part of our Website other than the home page. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

Our Website may contain links to third party websites that are not owned or controlled by us. These links are provided for your information and convenience of access only and you visit them at your own risk. We are not responsible for the contents of those sites or resources, and so have no control of them. Use of links on our site doesn’t mean we are endorsing it, and we are not liable for any loss or damage that may occur from your use of them.

Separate terms for purchase of goods and services:

You may be able to purchase goods or services on our Website.

When doing this, there are separate terms that apply to your use of these services or purchase. These terms will be clearly identifiable.

Please note that in some circumstances you might be entering into a contract with a third party rather than us.

We will clearly notify you should this be the case and we urge you to read any third party terms carefully before placing any orders for goods and/or services to ensure you are fully aware of the terms relating to that specific transaction.

Reliance on content:

Commentary and other materials posted on our Website are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed.

Following any sort of content is done so at your own risk. We do not therefore accept any liability or responsibility from any reliance you place on such materials, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

We may provide information on plants and fungi which may have medicinal or therapeutic qualities. Such information should not be considered to be medical advice or any recommendation to try or use any of the remedies described; this content is designed as reference information about botanical identity and nomenclature (naming conventions). This content is not a substitute in any way for the advice of a qualified medical practitioner.

User generated content:

If you have created something and make it available to Kew, then you have provided ‘user generated content’.

You will retain copyright in artistic or literary work, including, but not limited to, photographs, images, artwork, audio or text that you submit, post, email or otherwise send to us or our Website. When you do provide it to us, you agree that we may use and publish that content for any purposes and for an unlimited period of time on any channel and in any medium, including websites and social media channels managed by us and/or our wholly-owned trading subsidiary RBG Kew Enterprises Limited.

When you provide that content, you are also confirming that you have obtained the permission of any people who are clearly featured in photographs, digital images, artistic, audio or literary works for their photo, likeness or description to be shared with us and published.

Where possible and reasonable, we will credit your artistic and literary works with your name, but not where this is not feasible (for example, on Twitter where characters are limited).

Our liability:

The content displayed on our Websites is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. To the extent permitted by law, we hereby expressly exclude:

all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to our site and any content on it
any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by you or any user in connection with our Website, or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our Website, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for loss of income or revenue; loss of business; loss of profits or contracts; loss of anticipated savings; loss of data; loss of goodwill; wasted management or office time and for any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, even if foreseeable

Nothing in these Terms shall affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under the applicable law or which alternatively may affect your rights as a consumer (as applicable).

We do not represent or warrant that our Website is free of all viruses or other harmful components. You should therefore exercise caution in your use of the Website and when downloading any content and use up to date, industry recognised software to detect and destroy any viruses or similar destructive devices. You agree that you access our Website and download any contents at your own risk and that you will be solely responsible for your use and any damage to any computer system, loss of data or other harm that may result.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our Website or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

Governing Law:

If you are a business, these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

If you are a consumer, you should be aware that these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law and that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction. However, if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.

Takedown procedure:

In making our Website available online, we act in good faith. This means every effort has been made to ensure that content on the Website does not infringe anybody’s right or applicable UK laws. If you are concerned that you have found material on our Website for which you have not given permission, infringes privacy laws, is obscene, defamatory and in terms of copyright law is not covered by a limitation or exception, please contact us at info@kew.org stating the following:

Your contact details
The full details of the material
The exact and full URL where you found the material
if the request relates to copyright, you must provide proof that you are the rights holder and a statement that, under penalty of perjury, you are the rights holder or are an authorised representative
the reason for your request, including but not limited to copyright law, privacy laws, data protection, obscenity, defamation etc.

When we get your notice:

we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and make an initial assessment of your complaint’s validity and plausibility
upon receipt of a valid complaint the material will be temporarily removed from our Website
we will investigate your complaint, which may include seeking internal or external legal advice or, if it relates to material contributed by a third party, notifying the third-party contributor of the complaint and providing an opportunity to comment on the complaint.

Depending on the outcome of our investigation, we may, in respect of all or part of the material:

permanently remove the material from the Website;
replace the material on the Website unchanged;
replace the material on the Website with changes.